America Quietly Devalued and Discarded The College Graduate

The financial gain and social prestige once promised by America’s higher education institutions are no longer guaranteed realities.

Moon Bastet
ZORA
Published in
4 min readSep 8

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Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy as “Dwayne Wayne” and “Whitley Gilbert” in TV Series, “A Different World”, NBC, 1987

“Unbeknownst to the kids of the seventies and eighties, society was just five-minutes away from a sharp socioeconomic and academic downturn.”

Antiquated?

It’s possible.

One thing is for certain, if you are a member of Gen X, an Xennial, or a Millennial, you were probably raised to believe that college was the answer to many of life’s economic problems.

If you are an African-American of that generation you were definitely raised with The Huxtables of “The Cosby Show” and the college-based cast of characters on “A Different World”, and you probably believed that college completion was a guaranteed entrance to elitism, a middle to upper class lifestyle, and a lifetime of employment security.

Unbeknownst to the kids of the seventies and eighties, society was just five minutes away from a sharp socioeconomic and academic downturn.

The American middle class began to vanish with the influx of technology and job elimination. With technology went a major hit to the job market and jobs in labor, management, corporate, and more.

This socioeconomic shift created an environment ripe for major declines in American society as we knew it — specifically for men, blue-collar workers, and people of color.

Phylicia Rashad as “Clare Huxtable” in “The Cosby Show”, NBC, 1984

“The gig economy, for some, has proven a more lucrative opportunity …”

College is, and always has been, a heavy financial burden. It leaves many of its graduates in debt, and for many, this debt may never be paid off considering the realities of the job market.

Americans are graduating college with debt, some at six figures, only to wait six-months to a year to…

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Moon Bastet
ZORA
Writer for

Moon Bastet, MBA, MHRM, MPM — Witchy + Educated. Feminist. Tarot Reader. Digital Activist. - Contact: moonbastetwrites@gmail.com