Here’s a radical idea: Instead of blaming minorities for having the gall to, oh my god, want to go to college and have a chance at the positions and money you clearly feel your kids are entitled to, how about you try this:
1.) Oppose budget cuts to state-funded universities. Really. Almost every state has one, if not two (or more), Tier 1 universities with international reputations for education and research. When states cut university budgets, they’re making it materially more difficult for all students, including yours, to access institutions that are, by their very definition, public. (Coincidentally, they also make it difficult for those schools to continue producing the research that attracts external funding, by making it harder to hire new permanent faculty, acquire new equipment, etc.) So the next time the Republican representative you elected decides it would be awesome to gut public university funding, get together with your friends and go oppose it.
2.) Demand investigations into questionable relationships between college financial aid departments and loan companies. This has already been done in New York, but it couldn’t hurt to push for laws that require full disclosure as to the relationships between FA departments and the lending institutions they use. This will help you (and your kid) avoid being pushed into taking out loans that are not in your financial best interest.
3.) While you’re at it, why don’t you help all of us—educators, students, concerned parents—fight against university bureaucracies that have helped push tuition and fees well beyond viable affordability for all families? Demand financial accountability from your kid’s prospective school.
4.) In the meantime, sit down with The Big Book O’ Scholarships or its electronic equivalent and go through it. There will be something for your kid. Sure, it may not be Scholarship Intended Only For My Child And No One Else’s, Especially If They’re Black, and it may not be a full ride at an Ivy, but it’ll be something… and that is far, far more than many families—whose kids don’t have access to anywhere near the resources your kids do—will have.
Oh, and until you’re ready to say anything other than “It’s not fair black/Latino/Asian kids get money and my perfect kid does not because he’s white”… my special today is poached Sit Down And Shut The Fuck Up.
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Dear Angry White Men With Kids Of College Age
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