College Admission Scandal

Wow.  College Admissions Consultant arrested as part of 50 arrests on bribery, corruption, and fraud.  That this scam occurred shocked approximately 2 people.  That arrests were made was shocking.  What exactly would a College Admissions Consultant do other than bribe, participate in corruption, and fraud?  It speaks to a culture of rich white privilege, particularly male white privilege.

I know.  This is the part where your roll your eyes.  You are getting sick of me going off on this.  It doesn't exist in our daily lives.  There is no such thing as gender discrimination anymore.  It does still exist and we all must be vigilant against this.

This past week, I had two errands that I knew were going to be consuming too much time.  I had to return an item to a major retailer.  There were two clerks trying to serve about 20 frustrated consumers.  When I arrived, I was offered a chance to jump the queue and be next served.  I was grateful until I looked at the other consumers. and I noticed I was the only Caucasian.  I tried to tell myself that I was not given the opportunity because I was white but because I looked the most difficult to deal with.  I decided to take my rightful place in line. 

The line moved slowly seemingly to torture me that I had not taken the opportunity to be in and out.  As soon as I was next in line, a middle-aged white male wearing a suit came in and announced, "I am in a hurry" and went to the clerk when it was my turn.  No one challenged him.  I am sure we were all in a hurry.  Why did he assume he was in more of a hurry than the rest of us?  Did it even occur to him that he was being rude and that he should wait with everyone else?  Again, it might have been pure coincidence that he was allowed to cut in line and that he was a white male, but, there were lots of other people that came in between him and me and none of the others attempted to jump in line.  When he took my spot, I glared at him.  He did not even react to my glare and believe me, my glare is pretty menacing.  While I may agree that another race and gender may be just as likely to cut in line, I can not accept that any other demographic would not have the courtesy to atleast look guilty. 

My other time-consuming errand was renewing my passport.  I am glad this is now a once a decade experience.  I don't like that we need multiple security guards during this process, but, I get why waiting this long can irritate people and things can escalate quickly.  However, it is a great equalizing experience.  You get a number that presumably is based on what you are doing and how much time it will take and the relative point that you enter.  No one knows the reasoning behind it and your code doesn't give any hints when it may be called.  It seems to be fair and everyone seems to wait and accepts that.  A great equalizer.  A level playing field. 

That is what we need more of in all aspects of our life.  It is common sense but not common practice.  If you don't believe me, read more about the college admission scandal.  Apparently, it has been going on for a long time.  Not shocking.  The Justice system in the US is saying this is not acceptable.  It is up to all of us to follow this example.