Only Two Black People Made the 2021 Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans

The pandemic has made it difficult financially for many Americans, but the rich are getting richer. Forbes has revealed the 400 wealthiest Americans, and as far as Black people, only two made the list.

For those who made Forbes annual 400 Richest Americans list, their fortune combined soared to $4.5 trillion. The two Black people who made the list were men—Robert F. Smith and David Steward.

Robert F. Smith is overall the wealthiest Black American. According to Forbes, he is ranked No. 141 and has an estimated net worth of $6.7 billion. Smith is the founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a company he launched in 2000.

David Steward’s net worth is $5.8 billion. Forbes placed him at No. 182 on the list. Steward is the founder of World Wide Technology, an IT provider. The company is worth a reported $12 billion.

This year, noticeably absent from the list, is billionaire host, actress, producer, and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey.

Donald Trump has also dropped from the list.

This year, the minimum net worth needed to have a spot on the list jumped to $2.9 billion.

However, some well-known names did make it to the top of the list as expected.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, owns Instagram and WhatsApp, is the third richest American with $134 billion. Elon Musk, the CEO of Telsa, is No. 2 on the list with $190 billion. But the wealthiest American is yet again, for the fourth year in a row, Jeff Bezos. The founder of Amazon is worth $201 billion.

Forbes calculated the net worth for the list using stock prices from Sept. 3, 2021—which turned out to be close to record highs for U.S. stock indices like the S&P 500.

According to Forbes, The Federal Reserve reports the following median net worth of Black Americans is $24,100. The median net worth for white Americans is $189,100.