You are repeating some DuBois "Talented Tenth" mantra about college educated people serving as the foundation for a particular community, the problem with that stance is that are too many communities that have excelled without white collar college educated people serving as the main foundation. That is not to say higher education is not important, but I think too often you place too much weight and oversell just how important a variable it actually is.
In terms of gentrification you are wrong about the income makeup of gentrifiers, the ones who are broke are still being subisidized by their parents and many of the gentrifiers are still making more than 40k especially when you start talking about the ones residing in major cities. Even the level of education attainment can vary among these gentrifier groups.
really?LOL, what is this community you speak of that has "excelled" without the college educated serving as the foundation?
i think what i am saying goes further than the the talented tenth and is more grassroots, im saying that the overall level of education is what determines the level of wealth, its not just a talented tenth theorem, i would describe what i am saying as a critical mass theorem, there are some cases of success but overall black people have not reached a critical mass of educated people and educated environments to have self sustaining prosperous communities, i think this is true not just here in the us but all over the world
the way i see it, its inevitable at least in the world we live in now, that educated people will almost automatically create and receive most of the wealth
i dont have any stats about gentrifiers, that was more of from what i have seen personally but i would agree that "broke" is relative, it is true that people arent really broke in the sense that people in the hood are broke, they are "broke" relative to their upper middle class or middle class background and you are right that they still receive the financial benefits from their family
but i think being a broke unemployed humanities major, regardless of race or class, has residual benefits from networking and job opportunities that exceed those of the broke unemployed high school graduate and their movement contribute to what would be described as gentrification
the larger point isnt just gentrification, its "white flight" and also the decay of the midwest, all represent a movement of educated people
I find it interesting that you continue to trivialize the role of debt when we know it can serve as a barrier to obtaining capital, credit, and land.
i think the debt issue is important but it has to be put in perspective, first of all the notion that you can graduate from college debt free is something new, 20-30 year student loans was considered normal since forever, what changed is the level of debt and the huge increase in college costs, but i dont buy this notion that the world will end if you dont graduate debt free, especially if its a federal loan, because they have all sorts of payment plans to ease the burden if you are broke or unemployed, that is why i dont even believe in this so called student debt crisis or bubble that will supposedly pop, its not gonna pop
this is a good story
http://qz.com/85017/college-in-sweden-is-free-but-students-still-have-a-ton-of-debt-how-can-that-be/
the point is that its a bureaucratic issue and we have to figure out a better way to finance college, but that shouldn't have anything to do with whether you go to college, the notion that that black people or the united states can progress with people going around talking college down is silly and misguided
In that way the 28 year old bus driver is better off than the 28 year old Africana Studies graduate with 50k in debt from a mid-tier university.
well for one i assume they have the satisfaction of pursuing their intellectual curiosity
but my point isnt about personal things, its about community development and in those terms an africana studies major is highly beneficial to the community 1) they are able to pass knowledge to their family and neighbors and 3) they become role models and information banks about college to their friends and neighbors 4) they are better prepared to become part of the bureaucratic machine that is government or the private sector 5) as im sure you already know education is directly linked to productivity, so technically speaking an africanas major is more productive than a bus driver, so an africana major adds to the productivity of a community 5) in the long rung their income will be higher than the bus drivers, therefore contributing more to the tax base
Here is a video that discusses the effects of a Black child having college educated Black parents, sadly the benefits are not that great...
well i dont have time to watch it but i wouldnt necessarily disagree that the benefits of having college educated black parents are not that great hence my point about critical mass, hence me putting my argument in terms of community development and hence me wailing about the devastating effects of anti academic elements in black culture
so if for example a kid has college educated parents, but the culture discourages academics and neighborhood friends dont have college educated parents, then there will be little benefit from it, but lets say he lives in a neighborhood or block where most parents are college educated, that is a whole different story
that is why my theory is not a rehash of the talented tenth, im not saying that you can have one college educated person for every 10 people and that that will fix things, what i am saying is that we require a critical mass of black college educated people and a significant cultural shift
the broke unemployed africanas major is part of the critical mass we need, the issue of the 30K loan is an issue that we should take up with our congressman and president, its a bureaucratic issue that we need to workout