- Biden is reportedly planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt for those making under $150,000.
- NAACP President Derrick Johnson criticized the plan, saying it's not nearly enough.
- Black borrowers on average have a $53,000 debt load after graduation, nearly double white borrowers'.
Joe Biden is reportedly planning to cancel $10,000 for student loan borrowers, and not everyone is happy about it.
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, criticized Biden's plan — a $10,000 write-off for those making less than $150,000 per year, according to The Washington Post — on Twitter. Johnson suggested that the plan does not address a meaningful amount of debt, especially for Black borrowers, who are typically burdened by more of it.
"Canceling $10,000 in student loan debt is like pouring a bucket of ice water on a forest fire," he said, tagging Biden's @POTUS Twitter account.
Johnson has previously urged Biden to forgive at least $50,000 in loans per borrower, saying that student debt is an economic and racial justice issue that grows worse with inflation.
It is "the single best way you can drastically reduce the racial wealth gap, all with the stroke of a pen," he said in April.
Since Biden's plans to cancel student debt have been in the works, the NAACP and other advocacy groups have been outspoken on the disproportionate impact student debt has on borrowers of color. Johnson cited a 2016 Brookings Institute study that found Black borrowers have, on average, $53,000 in debt after graduation — nearly twice as much as their white counterparts.
Wisdom Cole, NAACP's national director for the youth college division, previously emphasized the significance canceling student debt would have in helping close the racial wealth gap.
"If we are trying to level the playing field in the future, and folks are disproportionately taking out more debt than their white counterparts or their peers, that doesn't sound like a level playing field to me, right?" Cole told Insider in a recent interview.
Insider has previously reported on the burden student debt has on communities of color, and specifically, how the student-loan industry was created to give everyone an equal shot at a higher education but ended up doing the opposite, shouldering minority borrowers with huge debt loads they cannot afford to pay off.
The Education Trust, a nonprofit, launched the National Black Student Loan Debt Study last year and found that 51% of Black borrowers have yet to see positive returns on their debt, and 66% of them regret ever taking out loans, deeming them "unpayable," "not worth it," and a "lifetime sentence."
Leading lawmakers for student-debt cancellation, like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have also long been calling for Biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt for federal borrowers not only to help stimulate the economy, but because that amount would be much more meaningful to Black borrowers than Biden's $10,000 forgiveness campaign pledge.
Data recently obtained by Warren's office and provided to Insider found that $50,000 in relief would zero out balances for 76%, or 30 million, borrowers and would reduce the share of Black people with student debt from 24% to 6%, narrowing the Black-white gap.
The Congressional Black Caucus recently called for "broad-based" cancellation, following the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus' calls for meaningful action on the growing student-debt crisis.
"In order to reduce the racial wealth gap and advance a just and equitable economic recovery for all, we must alleviate the burden of student debt," Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty said in a statement. "Nothing is off the table, except inaction."