Blanket student loan forgiveness would not narrow 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

Categorization

• SEED: An essay debunking progressive one-size-fits-all fixes by showing the race-specific mechanics: colorblind policy plus unequal starting conditions reproduces the gap — exactly the book’s core thesis instantiated.