A Tribe of the Middle Passage

Student loans have always been seen as a burden for college graduates and  are a constant reminder of the sacrifices that ones has to make in order to receive a higher education. However, despite this burden being a universal constant for any college student taking up student loans, the reality of the situation is that black college graduates are more likely to be heavily effected by these loans. There are several theories behind why these loans target and effect black students more than their white counterparts, one such theory is that because black borrowers often times have higher default rates, the amount of money they owe can be much larger. However as Emily Deruy, author for the Atlantic, makes note of “the U.S. Education Department doesn’t always keep track of how borrowers are faring by race. The FAFSA does not include information on race, nor does the system that keeps track of outstanding debt.” This in turn makes it difficult to pin point what the exact cause of these disparities are, but there are still ways to highlight the issue.

For starters, Judith Scott-Clayton, an associate professor of economics and education at the Teachers College at Columbia University, and Jing Li, a research associate in the Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis, found that black graduates have almost $53,000 in student loans after graduating at a four year college. Compare this to their white counterparts where it was founded that after the same amount of time lapsed, white students only had $28,006 in student loans. This means that after studying for the same amount of time, white students statistically leave college with less debt on their hands. With less debt, white graduates can use and save their money much more effectively allowing for them to start their adult lives much further ahead, as oppose to their black counterparts.  What’s more is that professors Clayton and Li were able to obtain this information through a set of data from two of the department’s “Baccalaureate and Beyond” surveys, which followed a set of graduates from 1993 to 1997, and another from 2008 to 2012. Using that information, as well as other data from the department and the Census Bureau, they found these disparities, which is how they were able to shed light on this growing issue.

The solution to student loans is an answer that requires its own time and energy to solve, however the fact remains that student loans for black graduates vs their white counterparts is drastically different. While there could be several other possible explanations for these disparities, the visible inequality caused by these differences is evident and a solution must be attained.

The Brown v. Board of Education case is of the biggest pillars in African Americans efforts to gain and establish basic civil rights in America. I found this article on the case and the time period it took place to be one of the most interesting I’ve read this year. It opened up my opinion and made me question whether the desegregation of public schools was really authentic or was it  to prove that America is a true model of democracy in time where it was competing as THE global super power. It asks the question: Was the verdict meant for true change or just a to put on a false face that the government actually cared about the advancement of all who are citizens of America and is different from a country such as their rival at the time the U.S.S.R.?

According to recent national studies, African American millennials in the workplace are more inclined to use the free agent option to advance their career. They feel as if they will have more freedom with an unrestricted path to their career aspirations opposed to a hierarchy. In the past, many African Americans were encouraged to stay loyal in their workplace for their lifetime, yet now the mental toughness of millennials have encouraged them to move forward.

It seemed that in previous years, many individuals built their careers by climbing to the corporate level. Their willingness to go all the way to the top and be able to retire let them feel as if they could say “I survived” as their ability and hard work made it as if it was a testament to how race has changed. However, the times are changing as “Free Agentology” is a new and upcoming way to work. This new system is the act of packaging and marketing a set of skills to an employer who is willing to pay above market value in order to gain a competitive edge to the extent that a contract binds the relationship together. This means, African American millennials do not see themselves as employees, rather they are skilled agents who get more power by obtaining twice the skill, instead of staying twice as long. “For African American millennials, the range of career/workplace options is augmented by the Talent Wars, the lack of strong Employee Engagement programs, bias built into the organizational culture, globalization, micro-aggressive scrutiny and leadership gaps the prevent advancement.” This is a very interesting new opinion about the workplace and sets new standards to every working individual in America.

 

When studying segregation, most people study separate hotels, restaurants, and other various miscellaneous places. However, most people do think of segregated healthcare. I think that is because healthcare is supposed to be the symbol of helping people no matter who they are or where they have come from; the only priority is to make sure they are healthy. During the 20th century, healthcare was extremely segregated. In the South, it was not uncommon to have separate hospitals for blacks and whites with the whites-only hospitals having better resources and facilities. If the hospital admitted both races, they often placed black patients in basements or attics. In 1959, Dr. Paul Cornley conducted a survey on hospital segregation. He found that, “83 percent of Northern hospitals were integrated in terms of patient admissions, but only 6 percent of Southern hospitals were. Of the other 94 percent of facilities in the South, 33 percent admitted no African-Americans, 50 percent admitted them to segregated wards.” Also, blood transfusion donors and receivers had to be the same race, no matter the clinical blood type match. There was segregation at birth too, with black and white infants not being cared for in the same nursey.

It was not only patients that were segregated too, many physicians were segregated as well. In Dr. Cornley’s study,” Only 10 percent of Northern hospitals accepted African-American interns or residents; only 20 percent had them on staff. Only 6 percent of Southern hospitals accepted them as interns or residents, and only 25 percent granted them staff privileges.” As a result of segregation, hundreds and possibly thousands of people died due to segregated hospitals denying them care. Although there has been vast improvements to racial equality in the medical world, there is still much more work to be done. For example, in 2012, of the 688,468 active physicians, only 4% were black. Clearly there needs to be more work done in order to bring equality to arguably the most important profession in the world.

 

Most, if not all people, remember World War II as the defeat of the Adolf Hitler regime and the prevention of possible German world domination. The death of 6 million Jews and approximately 15-20 million people who were imprisoned and slaughtered by the Nazis. However, for African Americans during the 1940’s, they were fighting more than just one war. While selflessly sacrificing their lives for the United States, the government and citizens supported white supremacy and segregation. While people were celebrating the victory over the Germans, they forgot that the military was segregated, the Red Cross segregated blood donors, and black soldiers came to housing and job denial.

While segregation was still being enforced in the United States, the following quote was written in the SS, the primary Nazi newspaper, “In the freest country in the world, where even the president rages against racial discrimination, no citizen of dark color is permitted to travel next to a white person, even if the white is employed as a sewer digger and the Negro is a world boxing champion or otherwise a national hero…[this] example shows us all how we have to solve the problem of traveling foreign Jews.”

As one can see, it was clear that although the United States was fighting for freedom of the Jews and other prisoners, they themselves were not enforcing freedom in their own country. The same can be said for the United States currently. Throughout the world, the United States is seen as the international enforcer of democracy and freedom. However, events like the Charlottesville in August 2017, show that things have not changed as much as we think they have. We have clearly not learned from the past, therefore, we are condemned to repeat it.

article link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-african-american-soldiers-saw-world-war-ii-two-front-battle-180964616/