How the student debt crisis falls hardest on black Americans

A new report highlights the effects of systemic racism across generations

A college student.

Thanks to the Democrats' 2020 presidential primary, two long-simmering crises are finally getting a major examination by American politics: the $1.6 trillion student debt burden, and the country's vast racial wealth gap. These two topics also overlap and interlock in subtle but important ways that are worth exploring in their own right — which is exactly what a new paper from the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute does.

The question of student debt leaves Americans caught between a hammer and an anvil: Taking on that debt is a crucial tool by which students (and, by extension, their families) gain access to higher education. But at the same time, that debt is a threat to students' future financial prospects. What the Roosevelt team teases out is that, thanks to the racial wealth gap — both the historical circumstances that birthed it, and its ongoing economic consequences — that paradox is worse for black students and their families. Their need for higher education is greater than their white peers, debt plays a bigger role in securing them that access, and any given amount of debt poses a bigger danger to their livelihoods.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.