Bribe to Play: Affirmative Action for the Wealthy

[_Jersey Girl]

How much did Trump's daddy put up?

[_canpakes]

How much did Trump's daddy put up?

Our ‘self made billionaire’ man of the common people got about a 400 million dollar head start from Daddy, but how much money was shoved at schools in order to accept and pass him is still unknown. No telling why no one is allowed to see any of those records. ; )

[_EAllusion]

This is news? I naïvely thought that this happens all the time, and is the sole reason rich people donate to universities.

It does. The story here is that people who didn’t want to pony up for having a dorm named after them bought illegal cheating opportunities for much less. The pitch literally was that instead of paying for institutional advancement, how about you pay me a fraction of the cost and I will get the same result.

The takes that focus white hot rage at the idea that people can buy their way into good universities are just weird. Where have they been?

[_EAllusion]

Do people think it is coincidental that people of generational wealth almost always have college educations from good universities? Do they think their wealth is a sign of their inherited intellectual superiority? Like there’s a bunch if Charles Murray fans out there or something?

I am surprised at how many people reacted to this story with surprise at the idea that wealthy people have significant advantages in college education gatekeeping.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I think the reaction is a normal response to being confronted with the methodology and reality of cheating to gain an advantage. This is one of those things that are an abstraction so it's hard to feel any sort of acute resentment in the face of a nebulous and relatively undefinable wrong. When the reports come out with specifics related to their circumventing the process, a process that's applied to 'everyone', then it's easy to relate to the wrongdoing.

It's akin to reading a headline like, "Man attacked on subway, sent to hospital." versus "Man was stabbed with a 6" serrated blade and called x-y-z by attacker, passengers did nothing to help, and it took the ambulance over an hour to retrieve the victim. The victim later died due to his injuries. He was a father of six and worked three jobs. The attacker was a parolee who was released due to overcrowding of our prisons."

- Doc

[_Fence Sitter]

This is news?

I wonder how many children of general authorities have had their BYU admission applications turned down?

[_Maksutov]

Want to talk about draft boards?

[_Jersey Girl]

Want to talk about draft boards?

Not today. My bone spurs are acting up.

[_Jersey Girl]

One report that I read said that Huffman had her daughter designated as "special needs", hired someone to proctor her entrance exam so they could change her answers.

Pretty darn sleazy if you ask me.

[_canpakes]

I think the reaction is a normal response to being confronted with the methodology and reality of cheating to gain an advantage.

See? This is the problem with Affirmative Action programs at these fancy schools. There are too many black, Latino or Native American kids stealing spots with their slightly lower-than-average actual SAT scores that could otherwise be sold to stupider kids with fake SAT scores and from rich families. Such a travesty of injustice cannot be allowed to continue. Affirmative Action must end.

(OK, so I’m sure that the conservative Rage-o-Sphere will soon be all over this, at least more so than just focusing their ire on the two folks who are from Evil Liberal Hollywood. Right?)