wading through the weekly bullshit #5: on the student debt crisis, erasure, and food safety

Apr 25, 2025

Here are a few things that pissed me off this week and a few opportunities to channel your anger or find the joy. As always, I’m covering:

how the current hellscape — made possible by years of Democratic ineptitude — is harming Black women;
who’s pushing through by honoring our history and affirming an abundant future; and
what pathways exist or can be made to apply the BWB framework to remake policy, politics, and our culture.

What the fuck is happening?

They’re worsening the student debt crisis: From gutting 50 percent of staff at the Department of Education to restarting collections on defaulted student loans for the first time in five years and preparing to garnish wages, the Tr@mp regime is ready to screw over millions of borrowers. They keep lying about “saving money” for US taxpayers, but this is just another wealth transfer scheme benefiting billionaires at the expense of the rest of us.
The erasure of Black history continues: They’re purging artifacts of Black resistance from the Smithsonian, including the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in exhibit from 1960. Some terrible white woman lawyer ~acting on orders~ says that the removal of “improper ideology” is meant to counter an overemphasis on negative history that “just makes us grow further and further apart.” In other words: less truth, more white supremacist revisionism.
They’re spoiling the milk: Following federal staffing cuts, the FDA dismantled key food safety systems, including immediately suspending its testing program for “Grade A” milk. This raises contamination risks and will mostly harm communities already facing nutritional and health disparities.

On the student debt crisis: This is another deliberate choice to crush already marginalized groups. “Black borrowers, and Black women in particular, have been stripped of generational wealth,” says Braxton Brewington, press secretary at the Debt Collective. “Black folks are underpaid in the workplace and then are forced to borrow more to attend college.” The BWB report continues: “Simply put, the student debt crisis is the worst for Black women, and we cannot hope to fix this problem without centering the experience of Black women borrowers.”

On erasure: Like many of us, North Carolina Rep. Alma Adams knows they can’t just delete what lives in us: “We are long past the time when you can erase history — anyone’s history. You can take down exhibits, close buildings, take down websites, ban books, and try to change history, but we are long past that point. We will never forget!”
On food safety: Black people are less likely to consume the recommended daily intake of dairy products — a result of historical disinformation, systemic neglect, and healthcare-related trauma. “With the FDA program shelved indefinitely, experts now fear a regression in progress made toward health equity, especially in communities that can least afford another setback,” writes Stacy M. Brown.

Get organized
- RESOURCE: Learn more about remaking higher education through the Black Women Best framework (policy pathway drafted by Charlisa Goodlet with Ashley Harrington) and why we can’t stop demanding the complete cancellation of student loan debt for all borrowers.
- ACTION: We deserve an education that doesn’t put us into debt. Join the Debt Collective in putting our policymakers on notice and send a letter to your elected officials in Congress.
Connect with the ancestors
- Order a copy of Spirits Come from Water by Ehime Ora: “For those who wish to decolonize their minds, particularly Black women, comes a thoughtful guide to ancestral veneration, with a focus on the importance of reclaiming African Spiritual practices as an act of liberation.”
Use your voice
- WNYC’s Public Song Project is seeking submissions for covers or adaptations of any public domain work. The deadline is this Monday, April 28!