Racial capitalism and student debt in the U.S.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the current phase of Black resistance exemplified by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which urges us to recognize and reckon with the differential racial impact of student debt in the U.S. and calls for the cancelation of student debt as an explicit part of its demand for reparations. Using the concept of racial capitalism, the paper examines the structure of student debt and its consequences for Black borrowers, analyzes the structural reasons behind the disproportionate debt burden borne by Black students, and highlights movements such as the Debt Collective and BLM, which not only offer a critique of the debt regime but also suggest ways of organizing against it.

A Decade of College Student Hunger: What We Know and Where We Need to Go

“…However, as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated "a smooth transition back into repayment is a high priority for the administration" (84) loan cancellation is uncertain despite the continued delay of payments restarting. The consequence of backtracking on student loan forgiveness will be felt greatest by marginalized communities, as student loan debt often exceeds earnings for many minority students (12,85). As aforementioned, FI forces many underrepresented students out of school, and the burden of loans without an obtained degree is even greater (86).…”

“…We, as a society, encourage students to seek a degree as a means to end the poverty cycle, yet the burden of higher education costs results in significant student loan debt (nearly a $40,000 average) for these students (9). In fact, more than half of US undergraduates rely on federal student loans (10) but the impact of this debt burden is harmful long-term for marginalized students (11,12). The result is a confusing balance of seeking more financial assistance but a desire to avoid debt.…”

Racial Capitalism and the Black Student Loan Debt Crisis

“…Debt elimination should not happen solely for student loans; such an approach wrongly reifies education as the only social policy (Kantor & Lowe, 2006) and the Black student debt crisis as an aberration of capitalism. There are activist movements and advocacy-driven scholarship growing to argue for full debt cancelation coupled with free college as a gateway to a larger vision to imagine livelihoods beyond debt (Mir & Toor, 2021). As is often the case, reckonings with anti-Blackness-where debt is one such tool-are made possible by grassroots mobilizations (Dawson, 2021).…”

“…Cancellation can abolish the racial student debt trap that targets Black people and harms many groups as collateral damage. While calls to dismantle student debt and racialized debt in general are growing (Mir & Toor, 2021;SBPC, 2020;Taylor, 2019), movement building continues to be necessary to generate political will. Disrupting racial capitalism demands the cancellation of student loans.…”

‘Make sure we don’t lose who we are’: young Black men navigating the college choice process at majority-Black high schools

“…Furthermore, Black students who enroll in college are less likely to complete a degree and more likely to incur levels of student debt that impede social mobility and exacerbate the racial wealth gap (Beal, Borg, and Stranahan 2019;Houle and Addo 2019;Kahn, Huelsman, and Mishory 2019). These findings sketch the architecture of the American higher education system that promotes itself as a meritocratic social institution while operating to reproduce the social strata within the more extensive apparatus of racial capitalism (Morales-Doyle and Gutstein 2019; Mir and Toor 2021).…”