There is an article in Yahoo Finance that claims that “taxpayers” are asking that Diddy’s son Justin return his $54,000 scholarship to UCLA so they could give it to students who need the money more than he does. Apparently, Diddy’s massive fortune precludes his son’s right to earn a scholarship like everyone else, even if he has a 3.75 GPA and happens to be a great athlete.
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Not everyone agrees that Justin should have to give back the dough, since the scholarship was athletic and not academic.
“He’s done what he needs to do to be successful, and in ‘Ameritocracy,’ we have to accept that no matter who your father is, whether he be rich, poor, or absent, that you can in fact be successful on your own merit,” said educator Steve Perry.
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Diddy definitely doesn’t need a scholarship to send his son to college. Just this year, he has earned $45 million from his various endeavors and was on the Forbes list of richest celebs. The $54,000 that Justin received to go to UCLA might be spent by Diddy on one night out at the club or on a new pair of sneakers for his cat. So one can easily understand the frustration of seeing him get any sort of financial aid.
While I can appreciate the sentiment of those who are keenly aware that Diddy doesn’t need the money for his son, the fact is that critics are wrong.
There’s something about being Black that makes others far more aware of when you’re allegedly milking the system in ways that would be overlooked if you were White.
The “outrage” over Justin’s scholarship would make sense if Justin was the first wealthy kid to ever receive an athletic scholarship. It’s not as if Justin got the money based on need or even based on his minority status. He got it for playing football and being pretty good at his sport. Mind you, I wouldn’t be surprised if his father’s connections helped him to jump a bar that he wouldn’t be able to jump if he were some regular kid from the ghetto.
But I guess that’s the benefit of having a Father who’s made millions by feeding bottles of liquor to Black people all over the world and making a lot of mediocre music (Seriously, Diddy hasn’t made hot music since Biggie was alive 15 years ago, and you know it).
With that being said, Justin’s scholarship is a non-issue and a non-conversation topic. When every rich kid in America gets his scholarship taken away, then we can talk. Until then, let the boy go to college like everybody else, he earned it.
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Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
