I have never bought into the meritocracy. And I am one of those brats who went to school on a 4-year scholarship that I didn’t need. The truth is that colleges give merit based scholarships to kids who they know will finish. If I had come from poverty, I might not have got that scholarship. As you probably know better than anyone with your background…colleges are businesses and they only bet on the sure thing.

But at the same time, when you accuse someone of privilege, they are of course going to get defensive. I think what might be more productive is to remind someone that no one gets where they are in life purely by their own sweat and grit. It’s a delicate intersection of drive, luck, and skill.