Source: Jon Kopaloff / Getty
Baby…Black Twitter was in a frenzy this morning after news hit that actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin were arrested for partaking in an elaborate bribery scheme to get their children into some of the most elite universities in the country.
According to NBC News, the FBI spent two years investigation the Desperate Housewives and Fuller House actresses along with almost 50 other people involved in the $25 million scandal, appropriately named Operation Varsity Blues.
See, this elite network of wealthy parents paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a California man, William “Rick” Singer, who boosted their children’s chances of gaining entrance into elite colleges, such as Yale University and Stanford University.
He did so by paying other people to take tests for their client’s children, bribing test administrators to allow that to happen, and bribing college coaches and administrators to identify the applicants as athletes, NBC write. The indictment also stated that some of the students even lied about their race and ethnicity on their applications to benefit from affirmative action.
“This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth, combined with fraud,” U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Adding, “There can be no separate college admission for wealthy, and I will add there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.”
When it comes to two Hollywood actresses, Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 to strengthen her two daughters’ chances of gaining admission to the University of Southern California, NBC reported. Meanwhile, Huffman and her husband, actor William H. Macy, paid $15,000 to get one of their daughters unlimited time for her SAT test.
“We believe everyone charged here today had a role in fostering a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for students trying to get into these schools the right way through hard work, good grades and community service,” John Bonavolonta, FBI special agent in charge, told NBC News.
“Following 10 months of investigation using sophisticated techniques, the FBI uncovered what we believe to be a rigged system,” Bonavolonta said, “robbing students all over the country of their right to a fair shot of getting into some of the most elite universities in this country.”
Clearly, this continues to show the ways that the intersections of wealth, white privilege and access continue to erode the system and allow for the 1 percent to get away with it. Meanwhile, people of color, especially Black students, who attend Ivy Leagues or other coveted colleges are made to feel inferior or told that they only got their “spot there” because of affirmative action.
Well, like me, Black Twitter was also HOT and had plenty to say about the situation from making jokes about the ridiculousness of it, pointing out the hypocrisy of how most of White America negatively views affirmative action and sharing their own personal experiences as a student of color in college.
Here’s what folks had to say:
Black Twitter Calls Out White Celebs Defrauding Colleges So Their Mediocre Kids Can Get Accepted was originally published on hellobeautiful.com