Jackson Capela
We live in a world where racism lives on. Some people feed off it; others hate to watch it happen.
As a proud African American I can’t see why college education can’t be free for all African Americans.—that makes no sense to me.
Many Native Americans can receive their college education paid for through Michigan’s Native American tuition waiver program. This is obviously because of how their land was taken from them by European immigrants. They suffered through a mass loss of population due to diseases carried by European immigrants and also were slaves. You don’t have to quote me on that though. You can find Native American history on www.britannica.com.
If they can receive free college tuition, so should we. They received reparations. Where are ours?
I’m not the first to make with this argument. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an article called “The Case for Reparations,” published in The Atlantic in which he gives detailed examples of how African Americans lives were screwed over by the government.
The start of “The Case for Reparations” reads: “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”
To me that’s enough said— that’s the whole case right there.
White families have a step up on all of us because we were held back so much from pursuing opportunities. That’s what created the wealth gap. And the wealth gap is what makes it hard to afford college.
Comedian Dave Chapelle brings up a great point: “The difference between a poor white child and a poor black child is that the white child thinks he’s not supposed to be poor.” That’s deep. If college is free for African Americans then we might be able to heal that mindset.
We have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a college education.
Today a bachelor's degree can’t even take you to the places where you want to go. For instance, I want to be a teacher. In order to have a decent teaching job you need a master’s degree which adds on costs. With only a bachelor's degree, most schools will not hire you. And that’s like wow! It’s crazy. You spent thousands for four-year degree and you can’t find a job. In that scenario you’ll probably be in debt for the rest of your life. A reason we live life is to find a passion. This just takes the soul, the happiness out of your passion.
Most of what causes African Americans to be poor is debt. And guess where much of the debt comes from: college.
You might wonder, if African Americans fought so much, why should we still be fighting? We have to fight for our lives.
So how do we solve this? We fight.
We form rallies, we go to D.C., we do Martin Luther King, Jr. all over again.
We work for candidates who are fighting for free college education for everyone.
We vote. Everyone turning 18 in 2020, PLEASE VOTE.
