“I think you're making a mistake of conflating the money with the familiarity of fame. … Fame bridges the gap of ignorance. It allows somebody to see you apart from the collective, the numbers. So now you're not one of those Black kids on the corner. You're not some sketchy guy with a hoodie. You go from being a blur in a lineup to being a face.”
Freakonomics Radio · Ideas & Essays · November 2026
Context
Michael Che had said money is what buys him freedom from other people's permission. Noah pushes back: it is being recognized, not being rich, that changes how strangers treat a Black man.
Transcript
on one part of it? Not to dismiss it.
No, please.
I think you're making a mistake of conflating the money with the familiarity of fame. I would argue that you would have exactly all of these same things with fame because what fame does is frame, fame bridges the gap of ignorance. What fame does is it allows somebody to see you apart from the collective, as you said in the beginning of our conversation, the numbers. So now with fame, you're not one of those black kids on the corner. You're not some sketchy guy with a hoodie. You're not, it's like, yeah, there was this guy. Oh my God, it's Michael Che. You see that thing? Like you go from being a blur in a lineup to being a face. Sure. Does that make sense? I think the money absolutely
makes sense. The money
thing. No, the reason I say it is because I think sometimes we conflate the money with the access or with the preference or with that. But it's like, no, to me, it's like, oh, I've seen black people with money who sort of don't like have that still.
But I think a lot of times that's why black people wear their money.
More from Freakonomics Radio
