Man of the People!

It is almost impossible for me to express in the English language how much I despise Nicolas Kristof. Between his self-serving centrist bullshit, his white slavery obsession, his inability to even apology over being played for a sucker by the Cambodian women he claimed to be saving, and his clownshow effort to run for governor of Oregon, this is a person with literally no redeeming value to society. But that will never kick you off the New York Times op-ed page. Nope, such a thing is impossible.

Now, I was driving to campus earlier today and thinking about stuff. And I thought, I just can’t wait for the active defenses of legacy admissions to come into the nation’s op-ed papers. This isn’t that, but it’s nearly as bad–it is Kristof co-splaying as a rural working class that Harvard took a big chance on.

Before I make an argument about affirmative action, let me tell you how I was a beneficiary of it.

I wasn’t a student of color, but I grew up on a farm and attended a small, rural high school where there wasn’t much math and nobody had ever applied to an Ivy League college. My grades and scores were strong but not extraordinary.

But I did have one thing going for me. Elite colleges were looking for farm kids from low-income areas to provide diversity. So a school that I had never visited, Harvard, took an enormous risk and accepted me, and I became a token country bumpkin to round out a class of polished overachievers. In time, Harvard gave me a wonderful education, transformed my life and set me on a path to becoming a columnist — which is why you’re stuck reading this. Yes, indeed: Providing paths to a better education can be life-changing.

Nic Kristof’s parents were both PhDs from the University of Chicago who were professors at Portland State University and bought a farm in Yamhill County in order to live the rural life while making their living as elite professionals, albeit at a public institution. Kristof didn’t benefit from affirmative action. And he insults everyone who has, whether actual poor whites from rural areas, people of color, or women. What an absolute clown. But now that he has decided he is the White Working Explainer for the Times, all the bullshit is coming. And why not? The Times didn’t do anything about his Somaly Mam lies in Cambodia? Why would they hold him accountable now?