Looming and dooming challenges, like student loan debt, climate change and abortion rights are not only stressing the youngest generation of adults TF out, but also jeopardizing their hopes for the future.

As Reckon’s culture and justice reporter and full-time member of Generation Z (1997 and 2013), I’m taking a deep dive into a piling list of problems causing a feeling of deep worry about the state of the world, better known as the ‘Gen Z Cliff.’

On May 18, Reckon held a Twitter space discussion with young leaders, advocates and change-makers to talk through all of the crises Gen Z is facing and will have to contend with in the future.

Despite the angst felt by Gen Z, groups like the Debt Collective, Youth Victory Fund and Planned Parenthood Generation Action are working to carry the weight of the world with them.

Panelists:

Elijah Manley (Generation Z) is one of the youngest people to run for public office in Florida and the CEO of Youth Victory Fund

Maddy Clifford (Millennial) is an Oakland-based writer, musician and organizer with the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtor’s union

Trenece Robertson (Generation Z) is a student at Florida A&M University and the Vice President of FAMU’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action chapter

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full recording here:

Check out a brief recap from our discussion on the ‘Gen Z: Cliff.’

Student loan debt is a crisis for us all

Maddy Clifford: I read an article where someone made a great analogy, ‘if white people have a cold, Black people have the flu and Black women have the bubonic plague’ and that is a great analogy for the student debt crisis that affects Americans from all walks of life. I think a lot of the time we think of it as a Gen Z or Millennial issue, but it impacts elders as well. It’s impacting everyone.

Make no mistake, this crisis disproportionately impacts Black people and impacts Black women and having the pause on payments go away in June, would significantly impact these communities. Communities that are already at risk of eviction and communities that are already facing food insecurity.

I saw an article from More Perfect Union where they talked about 46% of Gen Z currently having part-time jobs in addition to their primary job and that’s higher than my generation of millennials – we’re at 37%, but that’s still bad, right?

This is what the Biden administration has the power to do something about. They have the power to cancel all federal student loan debt, not just up to $20,000 and they can do it through the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Remember how expeditiously quickly they bailed out those big banks when the Silicon Valley bank crisis happened? They can do that with student loan debt too. The federal government doesn’t budget like a household; if they issue a debt, they can choose not to collect on that debt.

And that’s what we at the Debt Collective work to inform folks on how they can get their student debt canceled.

Gen Z making a $1 out of 15 cents

Elijah Manley: We’re in a very bad affordability crisis right not crisis and a crisis of an economy that was not meant to work for us from the start and so we have a situation where we have people who are living at home until they’re 25, 30 years old or even longer.

I just moved out of my parents home, but I still feel the brunt of these financial woes and how they’re affecting Gen Z. I’m working two and a half jobs myself just to get by and I know of so many people who are working multiple jobs just to make enough to pay rent and have a little leftover for other expenses.

At the end of the day, this is not an economy that’s working for everybody. This is not an economy that’s meant to work for Gen Z.

We’re the generation that’s growing up and will have to deal with all of this debt with the possibility of not being able to own a home, a possibility of not having a social safety net that other generations have had in the past. I think Maddie hit the nail on the head when she was talking about student loan debt as well, and how this affects mainly communities of color, specifically the African American community and Black women.

We have to get a handle on the crisis, because yes this is a Gen Z crisis, but it’s an all-of-us crisis.

Abortion bans impacting Gen Z and HBCU students

Trenece Robertson: The way I’m currently seeing abortion bans affect HBCU students is the fact that most of them (students) are just struggling with not only financial aid, the current housing crisis on our (FAMU) campus but also access to abortion.

I have had friends who need to get an abortion and they’re panicking and freaking out cause they’re so close to missing the 15-week mark here in Florida, although things will changes because they just signed a six-week ban.

But I’ve had friends on HBCU campuses who were trying to get access to get an abortion, and it was very difficult for them. They were stressed out because of a lack of transportation and also the fact that we live in a society that has a lot of abortion stigma. Many of them are terrified and scared to ask for help because of the abortion stigma.

It’s already bad enough that we have to deal with all of the other stressors that we have, but to additionally struggle to get access to abortion makes it 10 times worse and stresses us (Gen Z) out more.

–

The Gen Z Cliff: Imagine a world where you knew everything about the past, saw no change in the present and had no hope for the future — that’s what it’s like for Generation Z. The reality of a pilling list of problems bound to their futures has them standing too close to the cliff or society has pushed them there with an abundance of life-altering challenges that are looming and it’s causing a feeling of deep worry about the state of the world, better known as the ‘Gen Z Cliff.’ Reckons culture and justice reporter Alexis Wray is introducing you to a few of those cliffs through a Gen Z Cliff story series. Read those stories here.