'Squad' member Ayanna Pressley: You 'can't be anti-racist' if you don't want to cancel student debt
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
"Squad"-member Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., claimed that a person is unable to be "anti-racist" unless they support cancelling student debt.
In a tweet published on Monday, Pressley - one of the members of the "Squad" alongside Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. - shared an article by the Washington Post that detailed the stories of people across America with student debts.
Alongside the article, the Massachusetts Democrat claimed that a person cannot stand against racism if they don't support canceling student debt.
"You can't be anti-racist if you're anti student debt cancellation," wrote Pressley.
AYANNA PRESSLEY CALLS FOR 'UNREST IN THE STREETS' OVER TRUMP-ALLIED POLITICIANS IGNORING AMERICANS' CONCERNS
The article shared by Pressley included the stories of multiple people with student loan debts, and said the 45 million Americans who took out student loans hold a cumulative debt of $1.7 trillion.
According to EducationData.org, about 54% of all student debt is owed by "White and Caucasian student borrowers." However, the website also wrote that "Black and African American college graduates owe an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than White college graduates."
Pressley's latest eyebrow-raising comment comes as progressives have made the cancellation of student loans one of their top priorities.
Progressive lawmakers have been pushing President Biden to strike away student debt with a stroke of his pen since day one of his presidency.
Recently, many progressives have been pounding the drum for student loan debt to be canceled as Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona looks into the Biden administration's legal authority to cut the debt.
PROGRESSIVES RAMP UP PRESSURE ON BIDEN TO FORGIVE STUDENT LOAN DEBT
Last week, Omar thanked her "co-conspirators" Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for their "efforts" in pushing for student loan cancellation.
Warren called the idea "a matter of racial, economic and generational justice" in a tweet while Schumer said he thought that day "would be a great day" for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to cancel student debt.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., also signaled his support for the move, writing that Biden "can cancel up to $50,000 of student loan debt for the American people with the stroke of a pen."
Tags
Who is online
296 visitors
That’s stupid. Obviously. But apparently, she’s also the gatekeeper determining who gets “status” as being anti-racist.
WTF? That woman is not out in left field, she's in the next county over!
I can assure you that she is not in 'figure of speech' Canada.
... aging eyes.
Not sure what canceling student debt has to do with race. We need to do something about it based purely on the fact that it is stupid to saddle out younger generations with that kind of debt right out of the gate as it slows overall economic growth.
You can’t just add race to a topic and try to guilt people into agreeing with you.
I "think" the racist comment is in regards to the statement that "about 54% of all student debt is owed by "White and Caucasian student borrowers." However, the website also wrote that "Black and African American college graduates owe an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than White college graduates."
Guess she may be thinking that 46% not being unfunded is the racist part.
Ya never know.
But the article doesn't go into why that group owes more. It's possible that White and Caucasian students have better resources (both themselves and their families) to help pay for college, it's also possible that Black and African Americans borrow more for a multitude of reasons in college. I know of a person (years back) who took out a student loan so that he could buy a car. But without the full knowledge of why someone is taking out student loans you can only assume which I hope by now everybody knows that that leads to.
"By: Houston Keene (MSN)"
In actuality this is a FOX article for whom Keene works.
Why don't they make higher education free for all?
More than a few other countries have or made it pretty damn close. It is doable.
Sure is. Just as soon as we stop paying for military bases all across the planet; and maintaining a military large enough to defend all of our worthless allies.
Pressley is wrong on this one.
Much of the student debt's financial transactions are questionable. Look into that instead.
My late son had his student loan debt sold three times to different companies without his being notified by any of them at the time.
Like I said. And profits were made on each sale. The question is where did those monies end up?
As someone that currently has nearly $60,000 of student loan debt, I would LOVE for it to be forgiven! Just sayin. However, I don't see how race has anything at all to do with the student loan crisis. More than $10,000 of that student loan debt is interest. My loans have been through the same company the entire time, but I gather it's because of the types of loans I have as well as the fact that the school I attended only goes through one lender.
Initially, my payments were more than half of my mortgage every month; they wanted me to pay 10% of my gross yearly income, monthly. It wasn't until fall of 2019 that the loan company agreed to lower my payment according to my situation [3 kids, stay at home husband, etc.] and they dropped the monthly payment to less than a third of what they initially expected me to pay. Why wouldn't they have allowed that in 2015 when I was begging them for a reduced payment? My situation didn't change that much really... actually I make more money now... by A LOT. In 2015, my husband and I were both working, but together we weren't earning what I do now. Moreover, I owe WAY less on my home [technically there is no mortgage, but we owe my stepdad the money, we now just don't have to pay interest... bonus!] and no longer have a car payment. Yet, somehow they expected me to pay more, making less, with more bills. Then COVID hit and I haven't had to make a payment in months... without additional interest, which started Feb 2020.
For what it's worth, I do feel for the people who have large student load debts. It's difficult starting out your life with that hanging over your head when all you did was really did was follow the advice of (1) you have to have a college degree to get ahead in life and (2) pick a career that you can enjoy (rather than one that actually makes money).
With that said, I am against the forgiveness of student load debt for two reasons.
1) It's not really forgiveness as the money still needs to be paid back. So taxpayers will pay it back rather than the individual who took it out and agreed to pay it back. Hell of a life lesson I think.
2) When the federal government got into business of guaranteeing student loans, colleges and universities took that as an opportunity to raise tuition rates and fees as the money was guaranteed to be paid back. If was a magic money machine for them. They had no incentive to offer a product at the lowest prices possible, instead they had the opportunity to jack up costs at many times the inflation rates. With another federal "bail-out" why shouldn't the colleges and universities jack up costs even faster.
IMO the need to fix this issue is real. But once again the plan coming out of the federal government is only a partial fix. They really need to find a total fix for the problem or just walk away from it because this continued action of only providing partial fixes only causes more issues than it resolves.
Only way I would support this is if they gave the same amount they are wiping out to everybody who paid for their college and that includes me