Nothing thrills the poor more than the rich stewing in problems. Anything to take their mind off their present predicament for a second is so gratifying . Yes, the rich also thrive in buying stuffs they don’t need to impress the poor that they equally don’t like. Nothing sadistic should be read to this mutual feelings. There has never been any love lost between these two. So, it was a bit weird when the news of school bribery scandal broke and started trending in the USA.
The FBI, needing more education on how to effectively wrap up their relentless investigations into the 2016 general elections, busted a ring of rich parents bribing their kids into elite schools. I honestly don’t know why a no news like this is tripping the headlines, except for the fact that the poor are happy to see celebrities and the rich (some black celebs are poorer than their adoring fans) in trouble. Nothing tweets better for the poor than a raven bearing bad news to the palace.
Rather than buying smart kids; there are these 33 parents and 13 coaches who are being prosecuted for the cheating scam with figures ranging from $10,000 to half a million dollars to secure admission for their wards in Ivy league schools. By the way, Ivy league schools are schools you can drop out from and still be relevant in the world. The only news here, is that Trump is not mentioned, he must have safely left school before the news broke and before his dad died.
What is however painful is that black kids generically referred to as poor kids are being denied spots in an educational system that was designed to give them a head start in an unfair environment. Sports scholarship that for sometime has become a short cut to sports admission has similarly been hacked. With the rich slamming shut doors of opportunity on the poor everywhere, you wonder if an egalitarian society is possible here or the poor should just wait for the hereafter.
The rich, back home, are not as daft as to be paying to draft their kids into schools like their American counterparts. What is the point in buying admission when you can own the entire school? And when they cannot outrightly buy one like the religious leaders, they simply donate school library, laboratory and dormitories to schools whose Ivy league status is determined not by academic excellence, but rather by the virtue of the population of rich kids there.
Pending when our school admissions process is subjected to similar investigative scrutiny, it will continue to enjoy the concept of presumption of innocence from the society, and vote of confidence from our President who ironically got his certificate by home delivery.
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