Forbes faced backlash after publishing a “poor” billionaires list that includes iconic Black celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan.
Forbes published a list of billionaires who are “too poor” to make the Forbes 400–the magazine’s annual list ranking the wealthiest people in America–on Sept. 27. It reportedly took $2.7 billion to make the Forbes 400 in 2022. Oddly, the publication chose to put Oprah and Michael at the forefront of the article’s graphic, alongside reality TV personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
“Oprah, Kanye, Charlie Munger: The American Billionaires Too Poor To Make The 2022 Forbes 400,” the article’s title reads.
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Forbes wealth reporter John Hyatt wrote the piece saying, “It takes $2.7 billion to qualify for this year’s ranking of America’s wealthiest people. That’s down from $2.9 billion last year but still a far cry from just a decade ago, when the cutoff for this elite group was just $1.1 billion. That leaves plenty of famous faces behind. Oprah Winfrey (estimated net worth, $2.5 billion) was close but missed the cut. Kanye West ($2 billion) doesn’t have enough. Neither do Kim Kardashian ($1.8 billion), Michael Jordan ($1.7 billion), Peter Jackson ($1.5 billion) or Jay-Z ($1.3 billion).”
Hyatt concluded by reiterating that all individuals listed didn’t have “enough dough” to crack the Forbes 400.
“In all, Forbes found more than 300 American billionaires who have ten-figure fortunes, but not enough dough to crack The Forbes 400,” he wrote.
After Forbes’ social media team shared a screenshot of the article via Instagram, many users called the magazine out for its contradicting title.
“Please… there’s still time to delete this post,” user @mr2wo7tee wrote.
“Using the statement: billionaires “too poor to…” is ridiculous and grossly off-putting. GTFU Forbes!” user @chefchadwhite commented.
“[Laughing emoji] they [are} still richer than most of [earth’s] population though,” user @rizaldo_rizky_ramadhan said.
“Well, if that isn’t the stupidest title for a rich list…yeah, I’m sure they’re all worried they didn’t make the 400 list [skeptical emoji],” user @rob_no_bert wrote.
Forbes has yet to respond to the backlash.
