Fox Anchor Gets Emotional On Air in Describing The Real Meaning of 'Risk'
A Fox Business anchor who looks forward for a living took a moment to look back Thursday, reminding his viewers that roots matter as much as dreams.
On Thursday, Charles Payne took off his glasses, changed the pace and told the story of how his grandparents risked everything so that they could have land for a farm in 1951 in Alabama, according to Fox Business. It was a stark departure from his typical financial prognostications.
They were, he said, “a black family that saved up everything.”
“I got to share some of this with you because it is so powerful for anyone out there that thinks buying Amazon is a great risk. They gave everything they have for the property,” Payne said.
“It says, ‘we do hereby grant bargain and sell and convey unto the to the seller to describe the personal property and crops which are owned by us freely. One red horse mule named Red. One gray horse mule named Jack. One two-horse wagon, one hay mover, one hay press, nine head of mixed cattle, a cell hog, some wagons, mowers, presses,” the host added, while his voice shook with emotion.
“My grandparents gave everything. Everything they had. They worked their a** off for years, and they gave it all for 60 acres to have their own. That’s a risk, folks. That’s a risk. I’m so grateful,” he said.
Payne wrote about his family in 2017, in a Father’s Day post on Fox Business in which he noted the strains that took place in his family as a child when his family split up.
“I called my father last Father’s Day and initially he sounded bitter. A lot of water had gone under the bridge – time we could never get back. I had only recently learned of how his harsh upbringing and protecting the country in Vietnam changed him, so I wanted to reach out,” Payne wrote.
“I wanted him to know I did appreciate the blessed life he provided us,” he wrote.
Payne wrote that the call achieved more than he could have hoped, and it was just in time.
“We ended the conversation on a high note and I could feel he was happy to know I loved him and I felt the same. Hanging up the phone, with tears in my eyes I hoped it would be the beginning of a new direction. My father died two weeks later,” he wrote.
“I’m blessed he was my father and can only say to all the other dads out there: Do your best and you and your children will be blessed,” Payne wrote.
In a 2021 interview with Entrepreneur, Payne spoke about his early years when his family broke up, and he left Army living to move with his mom to Harlem.
“Growing up on military bases, particularly in the ’60s and ’70s, shielded you from everything that was going on in the world. I immediately saw the harshness and the poverty and the frustration. It was a culture shock. And the other part of that was the financial challenges,” he said.
Harlem was a shock.
“I never thought about where heat or hot water even came from. Up until this point, I thought every place came with a fresh coat of paint, heat, hot water and the things that most of us just take for granted,” he said.
Growing up, “I did any kind of hustle I could,” Payne said.
“I started cleaning windshields at stoplights and eventually got a job at a bodega, which was great. We were so poor that I started really thinking about money — and I had never thought about that a single day in my life until then. I felt a responsibility to bring in the money we needed as a family. That’s when I thought of the stock market. I think we all think of Wall Street when we think of money, so I started reading ‘The Wall Street Journal.’”
But even that was a challenge.
“It was hard as hell. If people could go back and look at what the old Wall Street Journal used to be — it was just a bunch of tables and lines and no explanations. It took me a long time to learn what was going on,” he said.
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