{"id":141792,"date":"2019-09-02T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=141792"},"modified":"2019-08-31T06:07:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T05:07:51","slug":"privilege-and-education-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/09\/privilege-and-education-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Privilege and Education Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unethical, Immoral, Illegal Abuses of \u201cPrivilege\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cA people that value their privileges above their principles soon lose both.\u201d<\/em>
\n— Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)<\/p>\n

The Nature of \u201cAdvantage\u201d<\/h3>\n

In Physics 101, high-school students are taught the principle of \u201cmechanical advantage.\u201d\u00a0 This principle defines the process by which a particular mechanical act (e.g., lifting a load) can be facilitated by using an \u201cadvantage mechanism.\u201d Thus, lifting a load by adding a pulley augments your efforts. It achieves the same goal, but with less effort! The pulley offers an \u201cadvantage.\u201d\u00a0 Using a number of \u201cadvantage tactics and strategies\u201d minimizes efforts, increases efficiency, and improves effectiveness.<\/p>\n

And so, it is in human life! \u00a0Advantages\u201d enable goals to be pursued and achieved without normal effort demands and impositions. If the goals may be unattainable by normal effort, \u201cAdvantage,\u201d in the form of money, position, power, personal relationships, they will be used. This becomes an acceptable norm or practice among privileged groups. As the \u201cadvantage\u201d of group connections and shared interests evolves, an \u201cadvantage\u201d network for pursing goals becomes a powerful resource for life.<\/p>\n

Shared or common ties develop and are sustained across various status commonalities.\u00a0 Common ties can be shared ethnicity, race, religion, gender, age, history, or financial ties.\u00a0 The idea is mutuality! \u201cWe help one another! Both sides benefit! Or the famous aphorism I learned as a college administrator: \u201cYou scratch their back; they scratch your back.\u201d<\/em> With this ethic operating, it is accepted all problems can be resolved. The power of the individual is multiplied; there is advantage! \u201cAdvantage is a privilege! Privilege is an advantage!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Equality under the Law . . .\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

In a democratic society, theoretically based upon equality of opportunity and resources, the \u201cadvantage\u201d ethic represents a serious problem. While individual variations among citizens\u2019 abilities and capacities must be acknowledged and valued, variations based on wealth, power, and position provide \u201cadvantages\u201d which ultimately destroy the fabric of the \u201cdemocratic\u201d society. The playing field of life is not level!<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivilege-less\u201d individuals and groups struggle to achieve goals so accessible to the privileged, and the \u201cadvantages\u201d are multiplied. Cronyism, nepotism, injustice, and corruption-under-the-law become visible sources of anger, frustration, and discontent.<\/p>\n

The aspiration or ethos of \u201cequality\u201d is destroyed as certain individuals or groups, by virtue of their wealth, power, and position, acquire \u201cadvantage\u201d across many different life arenas. A privileged class is formed; this undermines societal effort to foster \u201cequality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Educational \u201cAdvantage\u201d . . . <\/strong><\/p>\n

As the current group of forty or more individuals who used the \u201cadvantage\u201d of their privileged position to gain college admission and support services (e.g., test taking proxies, lies and misrepresentations about applicant student skills and abilities) are charged and prosecuted for a number of offenses and violations of varying severity, it is essential larger issues regarding basis of privilege be acknowledged, discussed, and resolved.<\/p>\n

The issue, of course, is racial and ethnic marginalized populations have little or no access to advantage; these populations are externally assigned and internally resigned to lives which limit mobility and opportunity, while the privilege of \u201cadvantage,\u201d is conferred on the wealthy, powerful, and positioned. At some point, consciousness of this situation arises leading to protests, and perhaps violence.\u00a0 For the privileged, their \u201cadvantages\u201d may seem natural; something expected and something to be used.<\/p>\n

While special talents in entertainment (singing, acting, movies) and athletics (professional sports) have enabled sizeable numbers of marginalized groups (e.g., African-Americans, Latino\u2019s) to acquire wealth and position as celebrities, the number is still proportionately small, and the pathways for success are arduous, requiring special talents and abilities to enter the arena. In some cases, marginalized groups respond by creating privilege resources among themselves.\u00a0 A good example of this is the creation of African-American universities with medical, law, and business schools.<\/p>\n

Education, when all is said and done, is an \u201cadvantage,\u201d even if the acquisition is distant from prestigious colleges, and is confined to community colleges, and unranked schools. But when education is associated with a prestigious and name college, a public image of an individual is enhanced.<\/p>\n

If you are a political aspirant, \u201cI graduated from Harvard or Yale\u201d is a benefit. If you are an entertainment aspirant, \u201cI graduated from USC or UCLA,\u201d helps the image. If you are a football athlete, you may seek entry at Clemson University or University of Alabama. Athletic talents are skill specific, and skills may be sought by a college to enhance athletic programs. Political and entertainment status also are skill specific bringing colleges access to wealth, power, and position.\u00a0 They offer an \u201cadvantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education Advantages: Structure and Process<\/h3>\n

The prosecution of individuals who used money, power, and position to purchase or facilitate college admission for students can be termed the \u201cEducation Privilege Advantage Complex!\u201d<\/strong> \u00a0This \u201cComplex\u201d<\/strong> involves two critical dimensions: (1) Number and status role of players (e.g., students, family, parents, peers, counselors, admission officers, test takers); (2) Number and status of society structural components (e.g., institutions, organizations, connections).<\/p>\n

Complex relationships and interdependencies among and across the \u201cplayers\u201d and \u201csociety structures\u201d enhance the role and function of each component, ultimately creating, empowering, and sustaining an abusive privileged system. Privilege emerges as a benevolent force, often without any awareness of its power.<\/p>\n

I term the members of this abusive system an EDUCATIONAL PRIVILEGE ADVANTAGE COMPLEX<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The \u201cComplex\u201d<\/strong> is graphically displayed in Chart 1<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As Chart 1 displays, there are many \u201cplayers\u201d involved in the Education Privilege Advantage Complex. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Interrelationships among these \u201cplayers\u201d is unique for each student.\u00a0 While admission privileges for some students may span the spectrum of players and motives, admission privileges for other students may be limited to a small group of players to assure admission under questionable criteria.\u00a0 Each is unique!\u00a0 Each, however, constitutes legal, ethical, and moral abuses undermining democratic values.\u00a0 \u201cThe system is rigged!\u201d is an oft heard term regarding mobility and opportunity for under-privileged individuals and groups. The harsh reality of this claim is accurate.<\/p>\n

The size, scope, and complexity of the \u201cplayers\u201d involved in ensuring biases and privileges in college\/university \u201cEducation Privilege Advantage\u201d admissions is overwhelming. It is, in fact, \u201cBrobdingnagian\u201d in proportion, demoralizing in consequence, and immoral in its presence and abuse. \u00a0Reform requires awareness of the \u201cplayers\u201d and a willingness to restrain and to cease the advantages.<\/p>\n

Pressures on \u201cplayers\u201d to ensure admission under any and\/or all circumstances becomes the challenge. While we may be inclined to think of college\/university admissions as only an effort among players, it is essential we recognize \u201cadvantage\u201d<\/strong> extends to a broad arena of activities involving economic and political sectors; this is the society tragedy associated with status, roles, connections, and the social formation. With advantage<\/strong> comes widespread privileging, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

A society\u2019s \u201csocial formation\u201d is often apparent, but it can also involve hidden dimensions with regard to racial, gender, age, ethnicity, culture, and sexual preference. Recent mass shooting reveal different agenda for shooters, but all seem to reflect a discontent and anger with changes in the power and presence of the society\u2019s social formation. Lack of access to privileges in the social formation brings alienation and anomie.\u00a0 Many are kept out!<\/p>\n

Even celebrities in the current admissions scandal, pleads \u201cNot Guilty,\u201d to giving $500,000.00 to USC as part of athletic recruiting scam, and now awaits a trial for conspiracy to commit fraud<\/em>, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, <\/em>their actions reveal a web of institutionalized biases in admission practices by prestigious colleges and others.<\/p>\n

Few deny the admission practices have exposed pervasive illegal, immoral, and unethical practices. Tragically, they are neither new, nor confined to a single school. Chart 1 displayed the spectrum of admission policy players; Table 2 lists some of the institutional and organizational sources of admission policies and practices offering colleges opportunities to adjust and adapt to needs and demands.<\/p>\n

Table 1- Selective Admission: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Institution Accommodation<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Academic Excellence Program Priorities<\/li>\n
  • Affiliations with Conference Biases<\/li>\n
  • Alumni Legacies<\/li>\n
  • Athletic Accommodations (National Rank Status)<\/li>\n
  • Civil Rights Issues<\/li>\n
  • Donations<\/li>\n
  • High School Quality Recognition (Public vs Private)<\/li>\n
  • International Student Recommendations\n
      \n
    • National Foreign Policy<\/li>\n
    • Special Talent Programs (e.g., Chinese Geneticists)<\/li>\n
    • Exchange Programs<\/li>\n
    • Treaty Agreements<\/li>\n
    • National Security Recruitments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
    • Joint College and University Program Agreements<\/li>\n
    • Legal Requirements and Regulations of Accrediting Bodies<\/li>\n
    • Minority Accommodation Examples\n
        \n
      • Gender<\/li>\n
      • Age<\/li>\n
      • Race<\/li>\n
      • Ethnicity<\/li>\n
      • Military Veterans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
      • Philanthropy Needs and Philanthropy Applications<\/li>\n
      • Test Score Accommodations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        What is apparent from the array of Table 1 \u201cSelective Admission\u201d policies and practices is that there is considerable admission latitude for admitting and funding students based on college\/university needs and preferences.\u00a0 The field is not level; rather, it is adjusted by each college\/university in accord with its perceived needs and preferences.<\/p>\n

        Obviously, there is considerable room for abuse by admissions officers and others among administration and faculty. Carefully honed college admission- policies and practices offer a wide array of financial and personal strategies, tactics, and processes to leverage educational advantage for selected students. Many of these policies and practices were started and sustained in different eras and time periods when their implementation was considered a \u201cnatural\u201d process.<\/p>\n

        Advantages extend beyond admissions. Once admitted, students and parents may seek preferential support for academic coursework demands, access to majors, and employment and graduate school placement.\u00a0 It is favoritism in the service of a continuation of the entrenched \u201cprivileging\u201d of \u201csuperiority\u201d by wealth, power, position, connections.<\/p>\n

        Historic and Cultural Traditions of \u201cPrivilege\u201d<\/h3>\n

        Although revelations of bias may be recent, the \u201cEducation Advantage Complex <\/strong>has been a \u201cprivilege\u201d for the wealthy, powerful, and positioned, for centuries. The ethic of helping a friend, a friend of a friend, or a wealthy and influential person is an acceptable ethic. The wealthy have always exerted their power for additional privileges; this is their advantage!<\/p>\n

        In the example of United States of America (USA), privileged \u201cwealth\u201d classes (e.g. Gilded Age; Jekyll Island) assumed positions of influence demanding and requiring partiality and preference. As a consequence, \u201cprivilege\u201d easily evolved into views of biological superiority. Members of lower socio-economic classes (i.e., workers), including immigrants flocking to USA shores, were considered inferior (see Alan Axelrod (2017). The Gilded Age: 1876-1912 Overture to the American Century.<\/em>\u00a0 NY: Sterling)<\/p>\n

        This tragic belief in superiority of genetic and family stock, blatantly evidenced in Nazi genocide efforts, evolved into an \u201cAge\u201d of self-affirming Darwinian principles!<\/p>\n

        \u201cLook at them! The way they live and dress; their appearance proves our point. We have got to stop them before they form Unions. Imagine, we give them jobs and work, and they complain of their wages and that working conditions are dangerous. Well, if you don\u2019t like it, leave!\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

        It is notable many wealthy and powerful individuals in USA industry supported Nazi Germany, including Henry Ford, Prescott Bush, and scores of companies with ties to IG Farben and other German industries, were partial to Nazi causes.<\/p>\n

        Included among the privileged turn-of the century scions are John D. Rockefeller (1839 \u2013 1937), Andrew Carnegie<\/strong>\u00a0(1835 \u2013 1919), Collis Potter Huntington<\/strong>\u00a0(1821 \u2013 1900), Cornelius Vanderbilt<\/strong>\u00a0(May 27, 1794 \u2013 1877), John Pierpont \u201cJ. P.\u201d Morgan<\/strong>\u00a0(1837\u20131913), George Westinghouse, Jr.<\/strong>\u00a0(1846 \u2013\u00a01914).\u00a0 Their beliefs in inferiority and superiority of people as a result of genetic race, ethnicity, and national origin founds its way into IQ Testing, military evaluation of soldiers, institutionalization, family planning and genetic breeding and prevention (Margaret Sanger), theories of behavior (e.g., William McDougall), and wars rooted in the assumed superiority of the European blood lines and achievements, validating invasive brutal wars (e.g., Mexican, Philippines, African Colonization [Joseph Conrad\u2019s Heart of Darkness]<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

        There was a pervasive implicit and explicit belief in superiority which became a \u201cZeitgeist<\/em><\/strong>,\u201d for the times evolving into justification for policies and practices creating a class, racial, and gender distinctions that has continued to present days.\u00a0 There are widespread beliefs today among certain government, commercial, and citizens that America\u2019s national and global decline can be attributed to increases in number and influence of non-white populations. The President Trumps iconic MAGA hat\u2019s slogan has now become \u201cMake America White Again!\u201d<\/p>\n

        Certain colleges and universities (e.g. Ivy League, military academies) were early on identified as prestigious and privileged. Note the number of individuals from these social status ranks holding positions of power in the CIA, State Department, and corporate worlds. Amid their biased and ignorant ways, government, military, and corporate policies and practices were advanced regarding wars, violence, and neoliberal economics.<\/p>\n

        Tragically, with this came a sense of righteousness for denying Constitutional rights, privileges, and expectations, in favor of their personal biases. \u00a0Recent exposes of abuses by former Presidents, Senators, Justice Department members and among Presidents, Congressmembers, and various National Security Agency offices, especially the FBI and CIA, reveal patterns of criminal collusion.<\/p>\n

        Privilege becomes a moral compass justifying treason and betrayal of Constitutional Rights. Money, power, and position bought friendships and interpersonal ties into a web of privileges. \u201cThe ends justify the means,\u201d became the arbiter.<\/p>\n

        Areas of Privilege Influence and Abuse<\/h3>\n
          \n
        1. College Admission Legacies:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          College admission of \u201cLegacies\u201d refers to the process by which children of parents and\/or family members who attended the college or school may be given special admission privileges. Sizeable financial donations to college made it difficult to refuse admission to children of alumni, especially when special notes were written extolling the \u201cabilities\u201d of their children, accompanied by reminders of the financial contribution\u2019s alumni have made. Indeed, alumni they may sit on the college\u2019s board of directors, enabling them to secure biased admissions.<\/p>\n

          \u201cLegacies\u201d are considered a \u201cjust\u201d and \u201clegal\u201d practice in admissions under established and acknowledged policies and practices, often written as essential guidelines for admission. Given two \u201cequal\u201d applicants, \u201cLegacy\u201d criteria will be used. Of course, for first-time students whose parents never attended college, and who are relying on their academic and personal records, \u201cLegacy\u201d constitutes disadvantage.<\/p>\n

          Today, as liberal arts colleges face serious financial challenges, recruitment official go out and seek admissions, offering a tempting partial scholarship ultimately requiring students to seek expensive loans.\u00a0 At least quotas are filled, and this keep administrators happy, and mora pangs are comforted.<\/p>\n

          Talented \u201cnon-legacies\u201d are often denied entry as the quota number of admissions is reached.\u00a0 The bottom line is to gain admission by any means possible. If applicants come from a recognized high school, have a high GPA, high test scores and application \u201cvirtues\u201d (volunteerism, special skills and talents; racial, gender, ethnic, and international considerations), admission decisions are clear. Numbers are massage, however, to provide admission to those who graduate from prestigious \u201cIvey\u201d high schools.\u00a0 After all, a \u201cC\u201d at that school is considered equal to an \u201cA\u201d at the public inner-city school.<\/p>\n

          Ultimately, the spectrum of possibilities guaranteed by \u201cprivilege\u201d extends beyond admission! \u00a0You can\u2019t play the game, if you\u2019re not in the arena!\u201d<\/em> The game involves far more than admission; it extends to the following:<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Tuition:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Will scholarships or aid be offered? To be eligible, parents often try to hide and deceive their income and access to wealth. When asked to list available finances, parents will engage in many tactics to present the student as being in \u201curgent\u201d financial need.<\/p>\n

            This can mean deception about varied financial resources which are available including grandparents, distant relatives, hidden accounts, secret trusts, expected windfalls. The deception is, of course, a crime, and represents fraud, but sky-rocketing costs of college and school tuition, lead many students and parents to misrepresent their actual financial status. Parents often will reject offers of gifts from grandparents so the parental income level remains below a certain standard for scholarship eligibility.<\/em> \u00a0Many tactics are used to reduce income to enhance funding.<\/p>\n

            Lying, deceit, misrepresentation, exaggeration, fraud, dishonesty, have become commonplace in applications for scholarship assistance.\u00a0 Costs are enormous, and families incur debt to help student school and college admissions and costs.\u00a0 Many are now asking students to attend low tuition community colleges or junior colleges to reduce expenses, relying on a good junior college record for subsequent admission and scholarships.<\/p>\n

            Student tuition loan burdens now amount to trillions of dollars. This burden can never be repaid under current financial situations. Loan procedures favor banks, and high tuition costs favor colleges and schools seeking to expand services to attract student.\u00a0 Monthly re-payments become onerous demands for low-income students and families.<\/p>\n

            The single example of a billionaire alumni and graduation speaker\u2019s decision to pay for the tuition loans and debt for graduates at Morehouse College in Atlanta raises the hope other billionaires can follow example.\u00a0 After all, the cost of $40 million dollars in the context of $5 billion dollars will not force the donor into poverty.<\/p>\n

            Scores of college-degree mills prey upon students, promising high paying jobs and social status with minimal time and travel efforts. Online courses offer convenience. The ploy: enormous tuition expenses. Government has done little or nothing to address this problem; a US Senator has raised questions about degree mills. It is not about the paper! Too many graduates hold degrees, but lack skill sets and abilities to fulfill job-placement requirements.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Living Costs (Room, Board, Transportation, Social Life):<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Admission alone does not consider college or school survival. Living costs must be included.\u00a0 For the wealthy movie stars and powerful families revealed in the recent scandalous expose at USC, Ivy League Universities, and other prestigious universities, living costs may not be a problem given exorbitant wealth. Cars, clothes, dining can assume outrageous proportion for college. Consider the number of wealthy students driving expensive cars and living extravagantly on a given prestige campus: status, identity, party, favors!<\/p>\n

              For the \u201cadvantaged,\u201d this is simply part of college life. For the poor, often minority students, this is a resentful assault on their identity. Once again, advantage is sourced and hidden in many ways and with many tactics. Scholarships are deemed by those who can afford costs to be a way to preserve wealth, often by denying and avoiding wealth\u2019s existence. \u00a0Big lies and little white lies abound.<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. Course Grades and GPA (Grade-Point Accumulation): <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Grades help determine a student\u2019s academic standing and rank. When seeking school admission or employment, the student\u2019s GPA is a visible index of ability and skill potential.\u00a0 Thus, advantages are to be found in paid tutors, testing-takers, term-paper writers, special relationships with professors, including supporting scholarly and research costs with gifts.<\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. Major Field or Specialization: <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  Access and acceptance into a college field or major specialization may be competitive because of limited faculty, scholarly, and research facilities). Here \u201cadvantage\u201d may be had by gifts, donations, and special privileges.<\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. Prestigious Fraternity and Sorority Memberships<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                    Fraternities and sororities vary in prestige across different campuses. There are advantages to belonging to certain groups in terms of subsequent ties and contacts. Parents will often engage in contact with friends or acquaintances to gain acceptance into a particular group. Sometimes the process is hidden, but clearly based on family ties and wealth (e.g., Skull & Bones at Yale). \u00a0Among sororities, although this is denied, certain sisterhoods are considered more prestigious. To wear their pin elicits pride and arrogance.<\/p>\n

                    After all of these advantages are pursued, many capable students are denied admission to the arena, and resources for succeeding. Too often, they are compelled to work to survive, limiting their time for studies.<\/p>\n

                    Consequences of \u201cThe Education Advantage Complex\u201d<\/h3>\n

                    While the disadvantaged cry \u201cfoul,\u201d the advantaged often disregard the consequences of their privileged position. Consider the issue of freedom. Freedom is a function of the number of choices a person may have available, and this is a function of societal formation status: rich<\/em> have more choices than poor;<\/em> men<\/em> have more choices than women<\/em>; whites<\/em> have more choices than Blacks <\/em>or Latinos;<\/em> educated <\/em>have more choices than unschooled. <\/em>Status markers shape opportunity.<\/p>\n

                    In these examples, unprivileged and under-privileged groups are faced with major barriers to upward mobility and changes in their status. The absence of \u201cmobility\u201d seals fate! Hope fades! Chances for changing life are diminished.<\/p>\n

                    At the core of the \u201cprivilege\u201d issue is individual and societal differences! Diversity! Diversity has become a socio-political issue of considerable debate and controversy. But diversity is also much more. Diversity relates to biological variation, a necessity for life\u2019s survival by offering choices.\u00a0 This is also true for cultural diversity. As cultures change and evolve, variations in values, beliefs, and behavior become socialized and institutionalized. This is true for \u201cunderprivileged\u201d struggling to penetrate<\/p>\n

                    Closing Thoughts . . .<\/h3>\n

                    Privilege! Advantage! Benefit! Help! Assist! Support! This is the lexicon of privilege!\u00a0 A timeless process in which opportunities are sized for pursuing and achieving certain goals. Privilege has been used across the ages by those in with wealth, power, and position, and the skills and abilities to maximize their desires for obtaining and perpetuating their status and role.<\/p>\n

                    It is difficult to deny the impulse in a timeless world in which competition assumed survival, adaptation, adjustment, and a chance or opportunity to ensure position and to become more, to enhance status, and comforts and conveniences will continue.<\/p>\n

                    This has been the historic story of the \u201cwealthy\u201d and the \u201cpoor!\u201d\u00a0 Should society now pretend it is angry with this ancient story, and make examples of those \u201c40\u201d who have been caught and identified.\u00a0 When should examples of unethical, illegal, and criminal prosecution of education privilege advnatge cease?\u00a0 This a is a provocative question!<\/p>\n

                    In a society which privileges some members because of wealth, power, position, and\/or birth, privileging is accepted as a right! The forty indicted individuals violated laws and committed crimes, although they contend have not. They must be prosecuted free of the biases of privilege they violated, especially in this time when privilege offered Jeffrey Epstein latitude to elude prosecution for what appears to be connections with wealth, power, and position.<\/p>\n

                    The outcome of the cases current being prosecuted remains to be seen. There is, however, irony in the fact society approves and values privilege, far beyond education, for its privileged members.<\/p>\n

                    \u201cWhat about me?\u201d<\/strong> asks the poor Latina unnoticed by anyone, picking vegetables in the California fields, her intellectual, artistic, and leadership talents are surging; she says to her mother: I want to be President of the USA! \u201cYes,\u201d the mother, says, \u201cMaybe someday \u2013 You, or your children or grandchildren.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

                    ___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

                    \"\"<\/a><\/em>Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Emeritus Professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii\u2019s Manoa Campus in Honolulu, Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. \u00a0He is known internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 21 books and more than 300 articles, tech reports, and popular commentaries. His<\/em> TMS articles may be accessed<\/em> HERE<\/a> and he can be reached at <\/em>marsella@hawaii.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                    In a democratic society, theoretically based upon equality of opportunity and resources, the \u201cadvantage\u201d ethic represents a serious problem. While individual variations among citizens\u2019 abilities and capacities must be acknowledged and valued, variations based on wealth, power, and position provide \u201cadvantages\u201d which ultimately destroy the fabric of the \u201cdemocratic\u201d society. The playing field of life is not level! Unethical, Immoral, Illegal Abuses of \u201cPrivilege\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":111348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1405,670,120,290,276,258,651,1383,985,70],"class_list":["post-141792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-basic-needs","tag-citizen-rights","tag-conflict","tag-culture","tag-democracy","tag-education","tag-justice","tag-privilege","tag-social-justice","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}