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Some see it as an egregious flexing of white privilege: A virtual bomb erupted this week over revelations that wealthy parents, including a few well-known Hollywood actors, bribed their kids’ way into some of the nations’ most prestigious colleges and universities in a widespread college admissions scandal.
Rich parents, including popular TV actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, were ensnared in the scandal after the FBI alleges they and many other wealthy, white parents took part in an elaborate scam that got their children admitted into these schools and some of them, onto very competitive college sport teams—even if their child had never played sports before.
There is a wave of outrage among the black community. For far too long, black students, who often have to work twice as hard to get into elite colleges, have been derided as “affirmative action cases.” That is, black students have simply been admitted to these schools because of their skin color and not because of their skills and hard work.
The hypocrisy is ripe and many black people have expressed outrage. In one particularly pointed social media post, L-Mani S. Viney, educator and youth advocate, as per his Facebook profile, expressed publicly what many black people are feeling about the situation:
Seeing posts from friends asking why everyone is so shocked about this college scandal. Lets set this straight right now. Ain’t no Black person shocked. We celebrating. And what you are seeing is every Brother and Sister, who had their intellect, character and culture questioned by the elitists, speak out with the FACTS…
“Today the world sees what we always knew, that the wealthy spoiled brats had to cheat and use all their resources just to compete with “US” lower and middle class kids who have had to fight for everything we got, when they had everything handed to them…
So today isn’t “shock” for no one. Its a celebration.
Because today is the day that every spoiled brat, elitist rich kid whose mommy and daddy’s thought that they could buy the illusion of superiority found out the most important FACT:
That they were never as good as us
Comedian and outspoken political and social commentator DL Hughley weighed in on the scandal:
It’s funny that some of the same people who bribe schools to give their kids better lives, turn a blind eye when they see black and brown parents struggling to give better lives to theirs! #TeamDl
— DL Hughley (@RealDLHughley) March 13, 2019
Author and radio show host Clay Cane also reminded people that black educators were sent to prison for boosting students’ test scores:
Never forget… eight Atlanta educators went to PRISON for boosting students’ test scores. #CollegeCheatingScandalhttps://t.co/XkEyoBPuEl
— Clay Cane (@claycane) March 13, 2019
Others shared their own experiences with education racism:
One of my teachers HELD A CLASS DISCUSSION about why I got into Northwestern & some of my white classmates didn’t. They decided it was because I was black — never mind that I had a 3.8 GPA & took all honors/AP/crushed the SAT. And that teacher told those kids I stole their spot. https://t.co/SU1GWhhnSU
— Liz Dwyer (@losangelista) March 12, 2019
As a parent in the process of preparing a child for the SAT with tutors ect., that story of college admission/SAT scams makes my stomach churn. You try hard-the right way and there are folks who don’t belong and get in illegally. Sickening!
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) March 13, 2019
a good day to remember that there are black and brown parents who are sitting in prison today because they listed a relative’s address as their own for the chance of their child receiving an adequate public school education
— Wesley (@WesleyLowery) March 12, 2019
Many in the black social media sphere also compared this scandal to the recent news about the College Board accusing a young black woman, Kamilah Campbell, of cheating on her SAT test after achieving a high score:
Kamilah Campbell, an 18-yr old Black senior & honors student, had her SAT results invalidated – because she had high scores.
She took the SAT again & scored higher, a 1230. They invalidated her score again. She can’t submit her college applications.https://t.co/L3EJ6U3yrX
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) March 13, 2019
Remember when they refused to validate #KamilahCampbell #SAT score because she improved her score too much ON HER OWN & had to prove she didn’t cheat? https://t.co/TbXIiPXVbY
— Laura Coates (@thelauracoates) March 12, 2019
As CNN notes, the fallout from the admissions scandal is likely only beginning. The biggest takeaway, however, may be, the number of students who do not come from privileged families and may have been denied entry to these schools because of rich people cheating.
Samara Lynn
Samara Lynn is a technology journalist, covering the industry for a decade. Her work appears in The Wirecutter, Tom’s Hardware, PC Mag, and other online outlets. She’s the author of “Windows Server 2012: Up and Running” and previously worked in the IT industry. She’s currently the digital manager at Black Enterprise.
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