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Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. Americans aren’t the only ones prepping for another tedious four years under President-elect Donald Trump. Since the results of the 2024 election projected Donald Trump as the winner, tech leaders from companies like Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, and others have shelled out seven-figure investments to Trump’s inaugural fund. According to CBS News, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has donated $1 million and plans to stream the inauguration on Prime. Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, will donate $1 million, along with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who delivered an optimistic statement about the President-elect’s election win. “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman said in a statement, per The Associated Press. Elon Musk, CEO of X, Tesla, and SpaceX, and general pop culture menace has been a lurking presence...
The world is waiting on you to get it done, Joe! A recurring question for current President Joe Biden is when he plans to fulfill his promises of forgiving the student debt impacting thousands of Americans. That question might have been answered according to reports from Complex that a host of borrowers could be eligible for a new program that would significantly slash or eliminate the debt. The move is possible through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program which was launched 15 years ago to help borrowers working in public servant-facing positions which include education, health care, emergency services, and others. Eligible borrowers will be credited for up to 10 years of monthly payments.
It’s time for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to get what they deserve. After a 2016 Duke University research paper revealed that HBCUs pay more for loans than other colleges and universities, Congress has decided to revisit the issue at hand and it looks like the change that is needed could soon come. Professor Bill Mayew — one of the researchers on the topic at hand — told AfroTech via email what all of this means for our beloved HBCUs. “Specifically, in an analysis of almost 1,000 colleges, about 10% of which were HBCUs , issuance costs for HBCUs were about 20% more than non- HBCUs because it’s harder for those underwriters to find buyers,” said Professor Mayew in regards to those exact findings. “As an example, our estimates suggest that to issue a $30 million bond, it costs an HBCU about $290,000, versus about $242,000 for a non- HBCU . This $48,000 difference is a significant financial burden. And this effect is much stronger in states that are known to...
With the Biden administration in office, the million-dollar question has been how President Joe Biden plans to use his platform to level the playing field when it comes to Black-owned businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic came in and shook up the world as we knew it, especially for Black entrepreneurs who, let’s just face it, already face obstacle after obstacle when it comes to scaling their businesses. “Build Back Better is the president’s view that we needed to do something right away in order to address the pandemic and the public and economic aspects of it, but it isn’t good enough to just get back to how things were before the pandemic,” said Bharat Ramamurti, National Economic Council Deputy Director for the Biden administration on the latest episode of Black Tech Green Money. Ramamurti says the Biden administration not only understands the need to reimagine the American economy but that it needs to get it right when it comes to Black entrepreneurs, Black techies, and Black...