I'm one of the lucky ones: elected to represent my university's student body, I narrowly avoided becoming a black youth unemployment statistic. But that's not the case for many of my peers. An incredibly high proportion of young black people are now unemployed. Recently on Comment is free, Diane Abbott lamented the tragedy of the 44%. But, after further investigation, it's now known that a staggering 50% of the UK's young black males are unemployed and unemployment among young black women stands at an unpalatable 39.1%. The statistics for black people as a whole are spiralling out of control.

Black and minority ethnic communities are well represented in the public sector, but the public sector is becoming increasingly under threat by cuts. To echo Abbott, this is a tragedy – one that is exacerbated by a privatisation agenda that shows little regard for the public good of services that lift people out of poverty.

Whether we're in or out of education, young black people are consistently at a disadvantage. The National Union of Students' Race for Equality report shows that a sixth of black students have experienced racism in their place of study. There are more black students at London Metropolitan University than in the entire Russell Group of research-intensive universities, exposing fundamental flaws in the access and admissions of black students into elite higher education institutions. Black students are less likely than their white counterparts to achieve a first-class degree – and studies from the Higher Education Academy have found correlation between being a minority ethic student and lower levels of degree attainment in general.

There's very little evidence to suggest that black students, by virtue of being in education, escape unemployment forever, or will outstrip their white counterparts when it comes to vying for a position in the workplace. There's also evidence to suggest that early unemployment can have a seriously detrimental effect on earning potential. Young, unemployed black men and women are growing up institutionally disadvantaged by a system that has the odds stacked against them.

So where's the strategy? Just a few weeks ago, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, optimistically revealed a £126m plan to halt the epidemic of 16- and 17-year-olds not in education, employment or training (Neets), providing incentives for businesses to take young people on. But Rob Berkeley, director of race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust, is dubious: "The government doesn't have any strategy that draws links between underachievement in schools and underachievement in post-graduation employment. There are no plans to address the needs of the groups who need it most – particularly young black men."

Clegg's doublethink on youth unemployment somewhat betrays the policies of the government he's in. It's nice to know that money is pledged to help get young people back into work, but the rhetoric rings empty against a backdrop of tripled tuition fees, cuts to education maintenance allowance, and an exploitative workfare programme driving Neets into unpaid and undervalued work.

A written submission to the Commons select committee for education from Brooke House sixth form college in Hackney paints a microcosm of the issue. At the time, 70% of B6's students were on EMA, and the two largest ethnicities at the college were people of African and African-Caribbean descent. In the submission on "16-19 participation in education", the college writes that the abolition of EMA will directly influence the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

The college details fears of a lack of financial support causing students to drop out, or fail to enrol at all. It's been said that correlation is not causation, but with policy changes at the top negatively impacting on opportunities for young black people at the bottom, these rising rates of unemployment should hardly come as a surprise. It's simply not enough for Clegg to pump money into youth unemployment. Unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds do not exist in a homogenous lump. If Clegg intends to act on what he preaches, he will implement a demographic-based strategy that tackles the roots of inequality in education. He owes it to the next generation of multicultural Britain.