Equity Challenge Education Day 5 - United Way of Westchester and Putnam

Education Day 5: College

To wrap up week’s examination and discussion around issues of racism and inequity within our educational systems, let’s challenge ourselves to consider some of the barriers that people of color face in attaining a college degree. Standardized tests designed to keep students of color and women out, the adversities poor brown and black students experience while on campus and the economic turmoil graduates of color face in repaying their loans, are all a part of a flawed higher education system.

12 years after starting college, white men have paid off 44% of their student loans, while black women owe 13% more. Read this article to better understand how the student debt crisis has hit black students especially hard

Read this piece by Harvard Graduate School of Education professor, Anthony Abraham Jack, on why colleges must learn that students who come from poverty need more than financial aid to succeed

Carl Brigham, the creator of the original SAT believed that American education was declining and “will proceed with an accelerating rate as the racial mixture becomes more and more extensive.” Watch this video on how standardized tests were designed by racists and eugenicists.

While popular misconception characterizes Asians as the most educated minority group in the U.S., Southeast Asian American students experience serious educational inequalities that are often masked due to their categorization as “Asian.”

These articles were curated by a local committee to be used as a list of resources pertinent to DEI topics. The 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge Committee would like to thank and give attribution to those who created the content above, which reflects their individual perspectives. We do not support nor endorse any advertisements associated with the above content.