Acclaimed writer and Broadway playwright Lorraine Hansberry once posed the prolific question: what does it mean, “to be young, gifted, and Black?” Nearly 60 years later, the sobering reality that persists for many Black American students seeking a college education in navigating the challenges of being young, educated, Black and broke.
Overburdened with crushing, disproportionate levels of student debt, they are playing catch-up from the first day they step foot onto a college campus. As a result, they start their careers strapped with significantly more educational debt than most white college graduates. More than 70 percent of Black students go into debt to pay for higher education, compared to 56 percent of white students, according to the American Association of University Women. The Association’s recent report also found that Black women carry about 20 percent more student debt than their white counterparts, owing an estimated $41,466 in undergraduate loans in comparison to the $33,851 that white women owe.
The Brookings Institute finds that the Black-white disparity in student loan debt more than triples after graduation, with Black college graduates owing $7,400 more on average than their white peers ($23,400 versus $16,000). And that regardless of the incomes they make after graduation, Black households carry more student debt, affecting their creditworthiness and ability to save money or buy homes. The debt difference tends to worsen over time, in part because of the longstanding racial wealth gap, which is only beginning to gain interest on the heels of America’s racial reckoning reignited in 2020.
