Is anyone else obsessed with the college admissions scandal? I think it’s such a fascinating con in terms of how many people were involved but also what it says about American culture right now. It was interesting to hear so many college admins talk about the commodification of education, and how it’s a status symbol. I feel like, in my circles, education is one of the last unquestioned bastions of classism. Like it’s totally ok to brag about it, be very oriented towards it, judge others on the basis of it, insist on using certain titles that correlate with your education level, etc. in a way that you wouldn’t see with material goods or “family background” or other demographics type stuff.
I also thought it was super fascinating that these rich parents mostly didn’t want the kids to know they were bribing them into schools. It really shows the invisible privilege so many kids have and it makes class issues make a lot more sense. I feel like so many of the very wealthy people I’ve known are just, so blind to it, and also always rest on the, “but I worked really hard,” line. It makes a lot more sense to me now, after watching the movie about the scandal, because it’s like…oh, you actually think you did this yourself. Well…that’s slightly more understandable, lol.
Also when the admissions scandal first broke my initial thought was that if I were one of those kids I would be so insulted that my parents thought I couldn’t get into any good school, lol. The other thing that happens a lot in this documentary is stuff I heard a lot in high school (public school bur very rich town) was how it was getting harder and harder to get into schools, etc. But like…that’s really only with prestige schools, which as the doc points out has nothing to do with the actual quality of the education. I think that’s left out of the higher ed costs and debt conversation too, where people act like every school costs $40k a year…but like, community college is literally free in a lot of states, and a lot of states allow you to transfer to any 4 year state school also for free if you get above a certain GPA. And there are so so so many public 4 years that are inexpensive.
It’s interesting to me that people don’t want to see that what they’re engaging in is status/keeping up with the Joneses stuff when it’s education related.
Also, in my fancy public school we had PSAT classes that were worked into our school schedule. Like, as part of the normal day. Even with that, I knew a lot of kids who eventually went Ivy or baby ivy and who also had consultants like this, including separate consultants just for writing essays. I thought it was bizarre and didn’t do any of that because like…we were prepared enough ffs, lol, but in talking to others who did they believed it was something “everyone” did, just like how most people they knew had nannies and house cleaners who came once a week. So in their minds it wasn’t a hugely privileged almost cheat (which is 100% how I saw it at the time), it was something almost everyone did, normal.
It really shows the mechanics underpinning privilege IMO. Because we think of these ultra rich people as caricatures in some ways. But when you meet and mingle with them it’s all very softened, cloaked in euphemisms and self-deprecation and statements of inherent gratitude. I think it’s why I’m so passionate about talking about how I feel about being rich now because most people at my level do not believe they are rich, and I feel like as a fellow rich person I should be able to bring this stuff up without eliciting the “I’m being judged!” response because…I’m rich too (but the judged response still occurs a lot, even as I say "I am also this privileged, like you are). Bottom line is the rich saying they aren’t that rich IS PRIVILEGE. The wealthy have always been really good at denying how advantaged they actually are, and I think the college admissions scandal really shows that. Even celebrities and ultra wealthy people were worried that their kids couldn’t compete like as if they hadn’t had enough of a leg up, because other people still have more. I also see inter sectionalism played hard against wealth privilege- so like if I am talking about wealth privilege with someone who I also consider rich they will often pivot to, “but I’m insert identity” and start talking about ways in which they’re disadvantaged, which to me feels a lot like white women using sexism as a shield for other critiques of racism or homophobia or whatever.
I thought this was a great article on the topic:
" most Americans don’t think of wealth this way. Instead of considering the overall breadth and depth of their family’s life preserver, they look to what they feel they are able to save every year. Not what they make , but what they understand as extra ."
This ^ is so true in my experience. It’s all about how it feels not reality. And no one feels really rich, except like, billionaires…and some of them still don’t. I think it’s impossible for me to judge a Bezos or a Zuckerberg if I sit here so near the top of the pile and say “but other people have more, I don’t have a jet!” Like that’s how the infamous Walmart family justifies not giving more to charity, lol, they have to preserve what they have just in case it’s not enough because other people have more. So many rich people have this attitude and I don’t think it’s more immoral if the person has more money. It’s like, why can’t we have honest conversations about GREED and jealousy, and envy? I find it very important to unwinding my own privilege and understanding it better, but the resistance is massive.