African American men are not all
criminals, as America may project. The number of students whom happen to be
African American improving their rates in higher learning; with an advance
education are black men. Since a high school diploma means nothing to a black
male, there aren’t any jobs for them. So the next best thing to create some
type of financial security for an African American male is: getting an
Associate’s Degree. An Associate’s Degree, gives a black male that small step
on the moon of job security. Yet, the wages haven’t help black men and to be
honest black men take a lot of the labor force, yet they are generally paid
lower on average than most women in the work field. Here are some facts the
Urban Institute in 2013, released a study about student loan debt with African
American males are 20% higher than white males, and African American women. The
principal rates on these loans are unsecured at 4.798 APR, and this makes it
extremely difficult for a black male to keep up with payments. And with for
instance a white male, the principal rates on their student loans are more secured
at 1.342 APR. It means their premiums are lower, there’s no fee for service,
late or maintenance of the loan.
With that said 34% of African
American males have student loans at a 2 to 1 ratio. And who is paying back
these loans are African American males, 64% of those with loans cover 71% of
the African American work force and 70% of them are working part-time jobs,
making on average $30,000 plus per year: Full Time, $12,000 part-time,
averaging $12 per hour. A white kid straight out of high school, with less the
education and experience is making $19 per hour around $40,000 per year and
majority of them are classified as apprentices in labor trades.
If African American men are
picking up the bill in repaying their student loans, with a rate of 10% of
those loans are unsecured yet paid in full or in good standing. This is
compared to the Caucasian race on average of repaying student loans at 9% are
in default or not in good standing. White men, are getting paid more, have more
job opportunities, but yet studies show they are the worst at repaying their
debts.
So how are black men criminals,
thugs and a menace to society, when we have the highest rates in good standing
African American men with Associates’ Degrees: whom are low payed, and are
leading the way in student loan repayment? How are we black men a menace to
society with unsecured loans; a growing crises in family services, and a
workforce that generally pays our labor the worst in America? We are shot at,
frisked stopped and look down upon as lesser to everyone. We are in the age of
Barack Obama, but the time for honorable black men to stand up is now.
It’s time for us to start wearing
our resumes on our chest, it’s time for us to stop hiding our brilliant minds
and it’s time for us to demand equal pay for higher loan rates. We are the
ones, repaying our student loans, we are the one getting paid lower for
advancing our education – so maybe the freedom we speak starts now.
Organizations like N.O.W. fought hard for the rights of women. Well, now it’s
time for the Black Live Matter movement to become the calling card for changes
in the justice system. Why? Because black lives do matter, and they matter in
the phase of what I written above?
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