Blanket loan forgiveness cannot reduce the racial wealth gap

Evidence

However, loan forgiveness is unlikely to actually level the playing field. For example, 30 percent of people with incomes over $114,000—a group that is predominantly white—carry student loan debt; loan forgiveness for them would still largely benefit white wealth building. And most student loan forgiveness plans do not include Direct PLUS loans, higher-interest loans taken out by parents that are common among black families. Canceling all student loan debt, while helping many black families, will not reduce the black-white wealth gap; the only way to do that would be to cancel only black student loan debt, and it’s unlikely any debt-canceling proposal based on race will be upheld as constitutional. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 333