Thread by @thrasherxy

Speaking of college admissions, a former Black lover who also got a PhD would tell his students "Statistically I should be dead before I should be up here teaching you."

Because the system is meant to recreate rich WASPS & to keep us out (if not to take us out entirely).

When I got into all 6 PhD programs I applied to with full funding, an elder white friend—now a former friend—said "Well it must have been bc of affirmative action." I'd have had no shame if this were true, but I was like, "Bro, I did this despite not donating shit to anyone."

It's really telling that rich white ppl have to (legally & illegally) bribe their way into these schools by building buildings & such—affirmative action for the rich, if you will.

At the same time, those of us who aren't dead have a much harder time getting in.

For my former lover, he went through Dante's 9 circles of hell to earn his PhD. Worked, taught & wrote his ass off for years, but he did it.

For me to get in, I had to wait until I was 37 & earn $ /cred from yrs of work & do it alone after many members of my family had passed.

When I started grad school, I was sometimes the ONLY nonwhite student in my classes. The white students generally had two living parents—often one was a professor or doctor. The students of color I met often had 1 or 2 deceased parents & were first generation to go to college.

& I knew 3 (!!) students of color who died before finishing their PhDs. It's painful to think about how hard it is for those of us to get into college on merit DESPITE all intended barriers AND to STILL be questioned if we belong—while rich ppl buy in & scream AFFIRMATIVE ACTION!

I know we all been knew that the game is rigged. But it's still demoralizing to think about how so many students of color (including me) have worked so damn hard for so many years, to lose friends on the way—and to see how blatant those with means felt they could just buy in.

And by “blatant,” I include the Kushners and the Bushes and those who got in the “old fashioned way”—because their grandfather went there or their dad donated a buildkng.

The only thing that makes me smile about this mess is that it’s two white women who are the viral face of grift and cheating.

Which reminds me, I gotta read this
nytimes.com/2019/02/26/boo…

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