It Really Isn’t a Meritocracy, Is It?

A Brit is finally “woke” to the truth:

There comes a point in a New York expat’s life when you suddenly realize that the liberal elites that run this town have feet of clay. You have watched them joining anti-Trump marches, opening their beautiful homes for Democrat fundraising parties and noisily bidding ludicrous sums at charity auctions. Then the time comes for their children to apply to university and the whole elaborate façade comes crashing down.

What he’s talking about is the “legacy” system of admission preferences to the children of alumni practiced by the Ivy League schools (and most other elite institutions in this country.)  Much of this has come out in the course of the recent litigation by the Asians, which has revealed a great deal of the arcane–and biased–process by which people get into these institutions.  As the article points out (I commend the whole thing to my readers):

The court has heard all the evidence and now awaits a judge’s ruling. It was told that Harvard’s admissions Gauleiters give low ‘personality ratings’ for criteria such as courage, likability and kindness to Asian applicants — often without even meeting them. The university insists it doesn’t discriminate against any racial groups.

However, these allegations pale beside what the case has revealed about how Harvard falls over itself to ensure rich parents and alumni parents — preferably both (and in elite Harvard’s case, they usually are) — get their children accepted. Far from being a Harvard quirk, the legacy system operates at three-quarters of America’s top 100 universities, including all but one of the very smartest ones (the exception being Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Having grown up with elite people, I find the fawning Americans on both side of the political spectrum bestow on their elite educational institutions nauseating.  That includes Evangelicals, who have no reason to want to associate with an elite that never liked them to start with.  The whole effort by the Asians to right this wrong is one of the best things that has happened in this country in my lifetime.  Maybe–just maybe–it will get people see past their own careerist ambitions, especially those for their children, and realise that those who lord over us really do have feet of clay.