Thread (10 Tweets). Let's talk student debt & race:

So. My total undergrad education cost was about $105,000. I graduated with $60k student debt. That means I & my black mom paid & I EARNED in scholarship $45k. Scholarships were ~$20k. So $25k over 4 years was all WE could do.

Since graduating in 2016 I've knocked out 3 loans. Totalling about $10k because I stayed home for a few months and paid $1000 a month to them. My total debt is nearer to $60k still than to $50k. And I have the most debt of most my (privileged) friends.

This is unfair bullshit.

Yes. Life is unfair. But how the fuck am I supposed to socioeconomically compete with my privileged college-educated friends?? "Well you didn't HAVE to go to college and get into debt."

Motherfuckers. Excuse me?

So then... because I, a brown person without a shred of generational wealth to help me pay for college, and couldn't afford to go to college without loans, I shouldn't have gone? Yeah hmmm do you maybe see how that perhaps keeps brown people behind in society??? No? Well it does.

"If you can't afford college don't go," is a shitty statement, but would be slightly more fair if low income households WEREN'T disproportionately BROWN, & if college grads were of an even racial spread which THEY'RE NOT.

So stop saying, "If you can't afford college don't go."

Student debt forgiveness would be a huge leveler, & a deserved one, call it reparations, for millions of brown & low income people who said, "fuck it, society says I need college for success, so I'm going. I'll make it somehow." But as per freaking usual we get the ball & chain.

Fact is college degree holders earn higher income than non. And the gap is widening. I don't care about your anecdotal rich plumber or electrician friend. So if we want to start helping brown people create personal and eventually generational wealth, they need college degrees.

And unless you're a racist, you should support helping brown people be economically lifted up. It is morally right given... *gestures*

And for the economy-concerned-only ghouls, it's actually hella helpful to the economy as well for brown people to be economically elevated.

Summary: The racial gap in student debt is real. It's real because brown people don't fucking have generational wealth nor savings to finance their kids' college. Mine didn't. And the scholarships are not enough. Student debt forgiveness IS fairness for brown people.

And not just brown people. Fuck yeah I want my rich &/or white friends in student debt to have their student debt forgiven. On their end, student debt forgiveness is fairness for unfair inflated costs of college.

It's a win for multiple groups. Downside only for selfish whiners.