Dear Friend,
My name is Kimeka and I’m a health center director and activist in Harrisburg, PA. I’m also a student loan borrower and I’m here to tell you my story.
I graduated with my doctorate in 2014 from Penn State, ready to make a difference in my field and contribute to my community as a public servant. However, with over $200,000 in student loans, I felt limited in what I could accomplish in my community.
It felt impossible to pay down on a loan that I’d never see gone in a lifetime. Before the student loan payment pause, my monthly payments were equivalent to that of a mortgage. I felt like I could never get a breath of relief.
During the pandemic and the payment pause, I’ve been able to get my footing and build some savings for the future. Most of the money I’d saved during the pause has been put back into my nonprofit, which works to empower professionals of color within the community. This work, my passion, is the reason I’m fighting for student loan cancellation. Stopping loan payments will allow us to contribute directly to the economy and give back to our local communities.
I believe canceling student debt would create happier workers and encourage others to work in public service. Without the benefit of loan forgiveness, which is offered in some private-sector jobs, people are discouraged from engaging in work that could make a greater impact. Canceling student debt could make tangible, meaningful change in our communities.
Roughly 85 percent of Black bachelor’s degree recipients currently hold student loan debt. Building generational wealth in Black families has been explicitly halted by racist policies stemming from slavery through Jim Crow to mass incarceration. Student debt prevents Black Americans from achieving financial freedom and continuously chips away at our quality of life.
The unsurprising, sickening truth of the matter is that Black students have been forced to take on more loans with relatively less means to pay off their debt, and the vicious cycle continues.
The facts of structural discrimination in student loan borrowing are clear. Student debt cancellation is undoubtedly a racial justice issue that NextGen America is continuing to fight for. I urge you to join our cause.
Add your name: Sign our petition that urges President Biden to quickly take executive action and eliminate all federal student loan debt: [link removed]
Sign petition: [link removed]
Thank you for listening,
Kimeka
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NextGen America
268 Bush St. #2919
San Francisco CA 94104-3503
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