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Remember how Jared Kushner got admitted into Harvard after Daddy's $2.5M donation?

posted 6 years ago by [deleted]
54 replies | jump to latest

In the midst of the "Operation Varsity Blues" scandal, in which Hollywood elite and very wealthy Americans paid bribes to get their kids into top colleges and universities, let us take another look at how Jared Kushner - senior adviser to his father-in-law who happens to be the President - got into Harvard.

At his high school, The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, here's what his former teachers and administrators had to say in 2004-2005 about his application to Harvard University, when Daniel Golden, the author of 'The Price of Admission', did a little investigating back then...

‘His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it.

‘We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen.

‘Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted.

‘It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.’

Then lo and behold, shortly after his daddy (real estate magnate Charles Kushner) donated $2.5 M to the university, Jared got his acceptance letter !

Talk about a non-coincidence!

He must've been really dumb to need a $2.5M donation from dad, when the students of today needed a bribe of a fraction of that.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Firstly, ethnic Jews aren't dumb. Jared Kushner is an ethnic Jew.

Secondly, by constantly focusing on people like Kushner you're doing the work of the far-right. You're demonising Jewish people. If you want to attack the political right, please focus on non-Jews, rather than potentially contributing to unhelpful and dangerous anti-Semitic narratives.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Why in the world did you bring up his religion in this discussion?

I made no mention of his being an 'ethnic Jew' - only you did. I brought up the fact that he was from a very wealthy family, his performance in High School was not "Harvard University acceptable" according to his instructors and administrators, and he 'coincidentally' got accepted to Harvard shortly after his dad's $2.5M check was cashed.

So again, I ask you, why in the world would you bring up his religion and accuse me of 'demonising Jews' ?

[–] PimpFranklin (55) 6 years ago

Make sure to point this out next time someone criticizes George Soros.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Why?

[–] PimpFranklin (55) 6 years ago

Because you were the one crying antisemitism. Do we really need to dig up your old posts?

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

What does antisemitism have to do with this? That was a theory by another poster, not me.

Wanna try again?

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

If you declare him immune from criticism solely for his race, then that is extremely racist.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

My thoughts exactly, Of all the people caught in "Operation Varsity Blues" sting this past week, no one is singling anyone else out by race or religion. It all comes down to wealth. Kushner fits the profile of the other 'criminals'. Let's hope they do a thorough investigation on his admittance.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Judaism is an ethnicity and a religion. In this case I am using It In the ethnic sense. It is not a race.

And it is relevant. If we keep singling out peopke who belong to a specific minority race, ethnicity or religion, we risk demonising that minority, intentionally or otherwise.

It would be akin to only talking about Bill Cosby when discussing sexual abuse, instead of also mentioning white sexual predators.

Bear in mind that anti-Semitic tropes and biases already exist. Let's avoid contributing to them.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

Kushner was clearly mentioned because of his White House position. He was not singled out due to ethnicity in any way whatsoever.

Your response here is an absurd non-sequitur.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

You're missing the point. I appreciate that no-one is directly referring to Kushner's ethnicity, but in specifically attacking Kushner for his elite, privileged status, and abuse of the system, you're potentially evoking toxic tropes.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

So is Michael Cohen off limits from criticism too because he's ethnically Jewish and a lawyer and that just brings up toxic tropes about Jewish lawyers?

C'mon Malko I know you're bright enough to see why the convoluted argument you're making is BS. Unlike Kushner, Jewish kin typically EARN their way into elite universities.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Unlike Kushner, Jewish typically EARN their way into elite universities.

Agreed, so why are we focusing on him and not WASPs/gentiles who didn't? Why not focus on the unearned privilege afforded Trump's numbskull children, including Ivanka, a religious but not an ethnic Jew?

Also, isn't Michael Cohen perceived as an ally these days?

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Why not focus on him? He's the president's son-in-law and #1 adviser. He plays a far more prominent role than Ivanka as Trump's corrupt ambassador at large jet setting around doing opaque deals with the Saudis, UAE, Israel and setting up back channels to the Kremlin that reek of corruption. It's also well known he got into Harvard in spite of shitty grades due to a 2.5 mil donation his criminal father made to the University.

Seeing as how that's something everyone knows about Jared and his infamous father Charles Kushner it made perfectly logical sense for Doggie to make that connection now during the fallout of the college cheating scandal making news. Nothing antisemitic about it. Ivanka was a legacy transfer to Wharton, but she also graduated cum laude. So it could be argued she was a more worthy progeny of nepotism than Jared, who never academically distinguished himself. And as you agree, Kushner's iconoclasm defies Jewish tropes.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Ivanka strikes me as a blonde, blue-eyed Aryan moron (I don't know what she studied at her daddy's alma mater but judging from her vapid personality and pronouncements, I'm not convinced this princess ever earned anything in her life, including her cum laude degree). I'd prefer to pick on her than attack a token Jew in Trump's circle. White privilege, of which Ivanka is a part, exists, but it's much more complicated when you add an ethnic Jewish identity into the mix (in view of the thousands of years of anti-Semitic oppression Jews have faced, and the recent rise in anti-Jewish violence). Ivanka as a religious Jew could always convert back if things continued as they are in terms of increasingly intolerable anti-Semitic hate, but Jared, as an ethnic Jew, does not have that luxury.

Also, fuck 'cum laude'. Justice Kavanaugh graduated cum laude from Yale. Are we saying that feckless beer bro is an academic whiz too?

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Lulz ... ah well cum laude as an undergrad might not mean much, but what does that say for Jared if he couldn't even stay on par with Ivanka and Kavanaugh?

The point being that criticizing Jared for being the beneficiary of nepotism in his college admissions has nothing to do with piling on any toxic Jewish tropes. It's entirely valid, nor should he be declared off limits just because he happens to be Jewish. I doubt Jared's ethnicity ever entered Doggie's mind when he posted this, it certainly didn't cross mine until you brought it up.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I doubt Jared's ethnicity ever entered Doggie's mind when he posted this, it certainly didn't cross mine until you brought it up.

I doubt it did either.

Not everyone is as conscious about anti-Semitism, explicit or implicit, as I am.

And yes, given a choice between singling out an ethnic Jew whose family has gamed the system, or singling out a white gentile whose family has done the same, I always think it's less problematic to focus on the latter.

We can't rightly call out anti-Semitism and then on the other hand pretend we're not part of the problem when we focus on people like Kushner, Weinstein and Sir Philip Green, instead of the many white gentiles who are committing similar acts. The danger in just focusing on Jewish misdeeds is that it adds to a very toxic narrative.

Likewise with the recent sexual abuse scandals. I think it has been extremely harmful and foolish to focus specifically on men like Cosby, R Kelly and Michael Jackson, instead of looking for white perpetrators.

It makes me wonder if people like us (i.e. otherwise reasonable libs and centrists) are allowing ourselves to become pawns in an overlying plan to demonise black and Jewish people, rather than saying "No. Fuck this shit! Let's seize the narrative and focus instead on white gentile misdoing."

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

I think you're taking this way too far. Kushner is being brought up because his father's 2.5 mil donation was a well publicized fact. It was a noteworthy story not just because of the size of the donation but because his father is the notorious billionaire Charles Kushner, the lifelong Democrat that Chris Christie put in jail 15 years ago after he was was caught witness tampering at his own trial by hiring super high class prostitutes to sleep with witnesses (one being his brother-in-law) and tried to extort them with the tape into not testifying against him.

No one even knows if Trump donated to get Ivanka into Wharton seeing as how she'd qualify as a legacy candidate under much more lax standards since her father attended.

I genuinely think you're being overly self critical suffering from white guilt when it's not warranted here. It's certainly not warranted with Weinstein given the monstrosity of his crimes. I just think you should lighten up on yourself. :)

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I'm not sure how 'white guilt' applies here.

Weinstein and Kushner are both white.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Would it be more accurately characterized in Britain as Blue Blood guilt then? 😉

Regardless, I feel secure in the knowledge that you know what I mean.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I'm definitely not a 'blue blood'.

My mother is Portuguese (very possibly of Sephardic ancestry), and both my parents are working-class (my dad's family is, I believe, Irish-Catholic). And many people, particularly Jews, have said that I 'look Jewish' whatever that means.

[–] ultravioletx (10237) 6 years ago

"Firstly, ethnic Jews aren't dumb. Jared Kushner is an ethnic Jew."

No ethnicity is dumb. Just individual people. Jared Kushner is an individual person. And a dumb one.

You are suggesting an individual represents an entire ethnicity. That is also dumb.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

No, he doesn't represent an entire ethnicity, but he is a member of an ethnicity with a deservedly proud reputation for academic and intellectual excellence. I can't believe he's that dumb.

[–] ultravioletx (10237) 6 years ago

"Secondly, by constantly focusing on people like Kushner you're doing the work of the far-right. You're demonising Jewish people."

After all that talk about distancing ourselves from identity politics. Here you are playing up his identity and that he should escape criticism because of it.

He's rightfully being criticized because of things outside of his ethnicity. And you were the one to bring it up.

tsk tsk.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Fair enough. You're very conscious of ethnic fault lines and take great care to ensure you don't exacerbate those divisions, which is admirable. It just strikes me as gratuitous and not entirely healthy when I see you go to the extreme of expressing guilt and remorse over criticizing a public figure who happens to belong to a historically oppressed ethnicity when the criticism itself is legitimate and has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the individual.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Everything you say here is 100% correct.

I'm just very conscious of vilifying minorities, when there are others of less vulnerable racial and ethnic backgrounds who are guilty of the same offences.

If we're going to, understandably, cite the bad behaviour of men like Kushner and Weinstein, we should also remind everyone that this behaviour is not confined to Jews.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

"If we're going to, understandably, cite the bad behaviour of men like Kushner and Weinstein, we should also remind everyone that this behaviour is not confined to Jews."

Except I think you're crossing the line into the presumptuous and patronizing to feel the need to do this because no one in their right mind thinks this. Only 2% of the US population and two tenths of one percent of the global demographic are Jewish. Anyone inclined to believe sexual predation or unearned nepotism are exclusively practiced by ethnic Jewish alone are already bigots and your reminder is not going to change their mind.

To the rest of us it just appears unnecessarily patronizing and condescending. I also think you're doing a disservice to the cause by bringing it up when no one else had necessarily made the connection of associating those questionable to egregious acts with their Jewishness. Neither falls into a toxic Jewish trope. Your reminder just cements the association for everyone. Your overcompensation ends up being more damaging than helpful.

[–] ultravioletx (10237) 6 years ago

I have to agree. Its important to give criticism where it is due and not hold back because of identity politics. If you hold back because of identity politics then it only strengthens identity politics.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Very insightful and I couldn't agree more. Arguably the most pressing issue facing our society right now is identity politics at the extremes of the left and the right fueling the divisiveness that is devouring the rest.

While right wing identity politics seems pretty straightforward as driven by fear and exclusion, left wing identity politics might be the more insidious and challenging to overcome since it's more nuanced. Being fueled by good intentions can make it harder to acknowledge and come to terms with when one's own rhetoric has crossed the line from combating racism/sexism/prejudice/ignorance to becoming part of the problem by unintentionally making things worse.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Thank You, eYeDEF for your responsible and intelligent posts above. Again, Kushner being Jewish had nothing to do with my discussion - not sure why he even brought it up in the first place. Guilt of some sort on his part, I can only suppose. So be it.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Yeah I didn't want to speak for you but I was certain Jared's ethnicity had never crossed your mind when you made this post. It's the identity politics warriors on both sides that make it an issue when it shouldn't be. It's tragic how it ends up being such a huge distraction and really destructive to civil and political discourse.

Just look at all the recent craziness with Ilhan Omar referencing AIPAC as being "all about the Benjamins". She's since apologized for unintentionally feeding an antisemitic trope that implies Jews as being greedy. But if you read her larger statement that certainly wasn't her intent when she was trying to highlight the corrosive influence money has had in gaming our political system to buy the allegiance of our elected members of congress. AIPAC and the NRA just happen to be better at buying our politicians than everyone else because they're the most flush with cash.

But instead we get weeks of hand wringing and recriminations smearing her from both the left and the right while completely ignoring the fact that the point she was making was absolutely spot on. It's sickening.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

But if you read her larger statement that certainly wasn't her intent when she was trying to highlight the corrosive influence money has had in gaming our political system to buy the allegiance of our elected members of congress. AIPAC and the NRA just happen to be better at buying our politicians than everyone else because they're the most flush with cash.

But instead we get weeks of hand wringing and recriminations smearing her from both the left and the right while completely ignoring the fact that the point she was making was absolutely spot on. It's sickening.

Thank You for pointing this out ! I thought I was the only one who viewed it this way.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

The OP pointed to Kushner in response to the college fraud scam the two "white liberal elite" actresses were implicated in.....

[–] ultravioletx (10237) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] PimpFranklin (55) 6 years ago

Deport him to Israel. Dual citizens are bad for our country.