Here, Fox helpfully flashed the pertinent facts below Eli Absalom Stone’s navy-blue bow tie: “Graduate of Harvard University and Rhodes Scholar.”
“If they hadn’t been, I would not have applied. End of story. I was not willing to trade my own integrity for a leg up I in no way deserved. And it gives me a great deal of distress, Ms. Owens, to think that so many of us seem willing to trade their integrity for what I can only see as a form of Jim Crow treatment. However it may present itself.”
“I’m very comfortable with my accomplishments, thank you, Mr. Stone,” said a barely-keeping-it-together Shaunta Owens.
None of this was surprising, by any means. I was about to switch it off when my brother spoke again.
“Justice Thomas has written that these ‘special consideration’ programs brand minorities with a badge of inferiority and may give them cause to feel that they are entitled to preferences in all corners of society. Any institutional preference is also, de facto, institutional discrimination inspired by prejudice, and that is unacceptable in whatever form it appears. I’m sure you can agree with that, Ms. Owens.”
“And besides!” said the Fox News host, a woman of extreme blondness with a Borax smile. “You’d have to be crazy to think there’s anti-Asian discrimination at any of these top-tier places. I took my twins on a college tour last spring break, I’m telling you, every other person we saw was Asian. I mean, everywhere!”
Jesus Christ, I thought.
“I’m sorry, miss?” said the driver, through the intercom.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I said it aloud.”
I did turn off the television after that.
It had always been like this. Every time I got it into my head to spend time with Harrison, to get to know him a little bit better and be, perhaps, a little bit better known by him, I had run into the very same obstacle: Harrison. More specifically, the noxious, unbearable opinions and associations of Harrison, ostensibly the family star, certainly its most visible member. Harrison, as current president of Wurttemberg Holdings, was also the one responsible for maintaining and extending our individual and collective wealth, and I supposed that was a good thing （I personally had no intention of declining the security and advantages that came with that wealth）， but his extracurricular activities as toady to the current president and inhabitant of that vile gray zone between fiscal conservative and Tiki Torchbearer made him less and less palatable every time I resolved to try again.
After returning from Ithaca the week before, and in an ongoing effort to avoid the now-looming task of applying to college, I’d emailed my brother and suggested we talk. In person.
Arranging this turned into an ordeal of its own.
[email protected] October 17, 2017. 10:21 A.M.
Yes, lovely to hear from you. Certainly we can meet. Why not come to office next Tues 11:15 am.
Cc’ing Flora who will confirm.
H. Oppenheimer
October 17, 2017. 10:40 A.M.
Harrison, I am a high school student. At 11:15 next Tuesday I will be in Latin class.
Hi Flora.
Phoebe
October 17, 2017, 12:10 P.M.
Delighted to hear that Walden is finally offering Latin. Begged and pleaded, to no avail.
Tuesday at 4 pm office.
Cc’ing Flora who will confirm.
H. Oppenheimer
October 17, 2017, 12:31 P.M.