The American Dream has slowly but steadily turned into the American Nightmare; the notion that anyone, despite their wealth, race or class, can make it to the top has now become thoroughly discredited.
Wealthy parents cheating and bribing to ensure their children into elite schools is nothing new, as the upper classes have long since rigged the system in their favor to make sure that the door remains closed to everyone but their own, often mediocre offspring. However, while the concept of the one percent looking after themselves is well known, it’s not usually that a concrete, infuriatingly obvious example of the process occurring is made public.
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Finally, the college admissions scandal has shone a light onto this shadowy world of influence and coercion, and it may just open up a whole can of worms. The case involved “Fifty people, including Hollywood stars, top CEOs, college coaches, and test administrators, who allegedly took part in the scheme to cheat on tests and admit students to leading institutions as athletes, regardless of their abilities.”
This scandal has shaken the academic world in the United States, raising questions about whether “qualified students were denied entry to accommodate kids of the rich and famous.” Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lauri Loughlin have been implicated in the scheme, although it is unclear whether their kids were aware of it at the time. One of Loughlin’s daughters, influential Vlogger and social media star Olivia Jade, won't return to one of the Universities heavily involved in the scam, the University Of Southern California.
If that kind of bribery and blatant cheating happens in schools, it leads to the question: where else is corruption happening? Who knows what dirty secrets are hiding in the world of politics, high finance, and the weapons industry, for instance?
Writer Jaimie Leigh has recently written an eye-opening piece that further exposes the festering injustice which runs deep through American society. The post, which has already been shared more than 30k times, details her experience working for wealthy clients, writing papers and doctoring resumes ensuring that lazy, entitled rich children get the right ‘personal brand’ for Ivy league universities. Because once you've got the right credentials, parentage and connections, your actual talents and work ethic cease to matter. You’ve made it, and you can tell everyone that you're ‘self-made,’ while bright and hard-working people from less privileged backgrounds find the doors locked shut.
With elections on the horizon, these are precisely the kind of conversations that America needs to have, rather than the endless distractions over the personalities of individual politicians. The issue goes far beyond any individual; it's systematic and needs to be rooted out if the American Dream is ever going to become remotely achievable.
People had a lot to say about the post:
Even celebrities got in on the act:
