Black student-loan borrowers, disproportionately burdened with debt, now face garnishments of their wages and Social Security benefits instead of upward mobility through higher education.
On May 5, the U.S. Department of Education resumed collection of defaulted student loans through its Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), which had been halted during the COVID pandemic in March 2020.
More than 42 million borrowers owe more than $1.6 trillion in student debt, according to the federal government.
Roxanne Garza, director of higher education policy at the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy nonprofit EdTrust, explained that borrowers who have missed three months of payments would start to receive email notifications and loan servicers would notify credit reporting agencies of delinquencies.
That impacts people’s ability to borrow for a home mortgage, a car loan, and credit cards.
“That is pretty damaging for borrowers,” she stated. Once a borrower hasn’t paid for nine months, their loan goes into default, technically collections, which kicks in more serious financial consequences, she told The Final Call.
The government’s announcement applies to loans that are in default, meaning, “They can take your tax refund. They can seize portions of Social Security checks and other payments, again, to essentially go toward the payback of the loan,” Ms. Garza said
“It’s kind of like a perfect storm right now, because this was going to happen this year, no matter who was in office. So, while this is not necessarily a Trump administration policy, the problem is that it is happening at the same time as a lot of other bad things are happening,” she said.
For example, staff at the Department of Education have essentially been decimated, she noted.
Impacted staff were to be placed on administrative leave beginning March 21, cutting that workforce from 4,133 to roughly 2,183, according to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
Student borrowers typically contact the Department of Education for help with questions about repayment options, billing errors, and available support, which typically already can take some time, Ms. Garza said.
“It’s really the last thing that low-income, low-wealth people need right now, because we’re facing a tough job market, rising cost of living, of childcare, housing, and rising cost of living across the board,” she said. She encouraged individuals to contact their members of Congress to share their experiences and concerns about student loan repayment.
Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samaad, executive director of the Mervyn M. Dymally African American Political and Economic Institute at California State University, Dominguez Hills, discussed the impact of student loan defaults, particularly on Black borrowers, highlighting the shift from federal grants to loans in the 1980s.
He criticized the federal government’s leveraging of education, noting that initial loans were for middle and lower-class families to move into the middle class, but pursuit of higher education began to come with a cost.
They began as low-interest loans, but after default, the rate jumped to 30%, exploiting generations of recent graduates, and after a six-month grace period, repayment began, according to Dr. Samaad.
“Well, just think about when you were 23, 24 years old, and hadn’t found your footing in the labor force. And you were probably earning, if not minimum, you were certainly at the median, in the middle, but you weren’t positioned to buy a home. You weren’t positioned to start a family and so student loans weren’t exactly your priority,” Dr. Samaad told The Final Call.
“It seems to be, to a large degree, an unfair penalty that is being placed,” he said. Former President (Joe) Biden had the right idea in terms of waiving student loan debt because the federal government took advantage of a vulnerable population—young adults trying to start their careers,” he said.
‘Debt: Another form of slavery’
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warned about the trappings of debt and called it “slavery.”
“I want to talk to you now about our future: America is in this so-called global economy, with a service-oriented economy where people, now, have to be re-educated to be technically savvy to fit in to even find a job in today’s world.
You send your children to college and you expect that their college education is going to get them a job. But since you didn’t have the money, they’re in debt,”
Minister Farrakhan explained in a message delivered October 9, 2011, commemorating the 16th Anniversary of the Million Man March and Holy Day of Atonement at the Philadelphia Convention Center in Philadelphia.
“Coming out of four years of college in debt and they’re constantly being reminded of what ‘they owe.’ So not only is America in debt, the American people are in debt! And debt is another form of slavery,” Minister Farrakhan warned.
While the student-loan system was designed to make higher education accessible, rising tuition costs have led to increased borrowing, according to the research-based Education Data Initiative, which collects and distributes national education system statistics.
“Black and African American college graduates owe an average of $25,000 more in student-loan debt than white college graduates,” according to “Student Loan Debt by Race [2024]: Analysis of Statistics,” authored by Melanie Hanson, an educator, research analyst and the senior editor for the Education Data Initiative.
Initially published on Jan. 16, 2023, and updated on Feb. 18, 2025, the report highlights further the racial disparities in student-loan borrowing, reflecting dramatic differences in financial health, habits, and resource availability from one community to the next:
• Four years after graduation, Black students owe an average of 188% more than White students borrowed.
• Black and African American student borrowers are the most likely to struggle financially due to student-loan debt, making monthly payments of $258.
• Asian college graduates are the fastest to repay their loan debt and the most likely to earn a higher salary to help pay for student-loan debt.
FSA said it plans to provide reminders, resources and support in selecting the best plans, including the new Loan Simulator, AI Assistant (Aiden), and extended servicers call times.
FSA indicates it will also launch an enhanced Income-Driven Repayment process, simplifying the time that it will take borrowers to enroll and eliminating the need for borrowers to recertify their income every year. More information may be found at StudentAid.gov.
Nonetheless, advocates say that federal programs intended to alleviate student debt have often fallen short. For example, students committed to public service with the hope of student-loan forgiveness, but those plans are now at risk, reported Business Insider, a multimedia online news company focused on business, technology, and finance.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) was created in 2007 to forgive student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments, but eligibility has been limited by President Trump, Business Insider noted.
“Faith without works is dead,” stated Dr. Samaad. “We have to deconstruct what is happening to us from a policy perspective, because all of this is structural. All of this is systemic, and we don’t realize that until long after it begins to impact us,” he said.
Some student borrowers and advocates, such as the NAACP, are calling for student-loan debt cancellation.
“My debt-to-income ratio is so disproportionate that my risk for home ownership is not likely. Who will give us a mortgage with nearly $500K in student-loan debt?” stated “Sheila S.”
She is among the student debt stories, highlighted by the NAACP.
“The student debt crisis has a disproportionate impact on Black borrowers and their families. Across all racial groups, Black borrowers hold the most student-loan debt despite also being consistently underserved by postsecondary institutions,” according to the NAACP’s “50K & Beyond” petition for the federal government under the helm of then-President Joe Biden.
“We’re calling on our elected officials to cancel a minimum of $50,000 in student debt without barriers or means-testing for Black borrowers,” states the NAACP’s online call to action.
“Mary” shared, “I delayed having children and ultimately only had 1 rather than the 3 that I planned on.” “Alexandra,” stated she is not able to save an emergency fund.
“K. Denise” shared, in part, that “I needed to borrow from family and my retirement fund in order to pay down debt. The impact to my credit has been devastating and I am often saddled with high interest loans for cars, homes, and high interest credit cards.”
Divine guidance and doing for self
The crisis facing student-loan borrowers is but another example of the decades of divine guidance and warning of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and taught by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, that Black people will be forced to unify and do for themselves.
Both of these divine servants have taught that the federal government and White people do not have the means or desire to help their citizens, particularly Black people.
“See, I’m clear that they’re not preparing a future for us, but I’m also clear that we’re going to have to provide a future for ourselves! That is not their responsibility,” said Minister Farrakhan in his October 2011 message in Philadelphia.
“In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 8, the scripture teaches: ‘Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. …’ Something is wrong with that Son of Man!
Hell, if a bird can ‘build a nest,’ and a fox can ‘scratch out a hole,’ what has happened to the Sons of Men, that we’re sitting around here poor, ragged, hungry; houses foreclosed on, naked, out-of-doors? What’s wrong with us?” Minister Farrakhan continued.
“The government doesn’t have enough money to even take care of us in the Armed Forces because they’ve got ‘push-button’ war now, where it’s ‘send a drone,’ or, ‘get on the computer and map it out.’ Well, where do you fit? Where do we fit?
They say ‘No Child Left Behind’—but a huge part of the country is being left behind. And if America does not want White people, and the Black, Brown and common poor to be left behind, what plan does America have to create the jobs that you are seeking? She doesn’t have a plan! The question is: ‘Do we have one?’
“That’s why I want you to revisit Elijah Muhammad. He gave us a Plan way back in the 1960s.”
To study the Program, Position and Plan of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, read “Message to the Blackman in America.” See page 18 for more information.
Black student borrowers are the most likely to struggle financially due to student-loan debt, making monthly payments of $258.