White privilege is a real issue when it comes to the wealthy. YouTuber Olivia Jade has finally gone on the record about the College Admissions Scandal.
Olivia Jade is back in the headlines but for the right reasons this time. She has gone onto Jada Pinkett-Smith’s Red Table Talk to discuss her family’s involvement in the College Admissions Scandal that was made public in March 2019. It’s here that she discusses the bubble of privilege she was in because she was raised by rich parents. We’ve discussed her comeback on a few occasions.
Jada, her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris (Gammy), and daughter Willow Smith had very different opinions on the idea of Olivia being on their show. It is perfectly okay to have differing views. Pinkett-Smith said she allowed Olivia onto the show because she wanted to be inclusive while her mum said having Giannulli at the table was opening them up to white privilege. Smith, however, respected both her mother and grandmother’s views and said it was best to reserve judgement until they heard the other side of the story.
These are classy ladies from three very different generations. Before we dive into the Olivia portion of this post here’s the interview in full:
Olivia’s New Perspective
It’s clear from the interview that Pinkett-Smith, Banfield-Norris, and Smith were asking pretty hardcore questions of Olivia which she answered with total grace. We had expected her to break down in tears but she didn’t. Just by watching it, it’s very clear that OJ’s perspective has totally changed from where she was almost two years ago.
Olivia explains that back when the scandal broke, she did not understand why people were so upset, given that wealthy people donated money to colleges all the time. However, as time went on, she came to realisation that her parents did in paying for she and her sister to get into the University of Southern California was wrong.
She says in the interview hat she was not angry with her parents. However, she did say that her father had more say in the scam than her mother. She reckons her dad had attachment issues and didn’t want his daughters to leave California. Meanwhile her mum was mostly in Canada working on a movie.
OJ also said that she realises now that there are people out there who are not wealthy and have privilege and that she knows what her family did was wrong.
Did Olivia Apologise?
In her own way, Olivia did apologise for using her white privilege and being ignorant of being wealthy. We wrote a while ago about whether her career would survive. At the time, we were uncertain whether her business would go back to how it was. We’re still on the fence about it now. At least now she knows she and her parents messed up. She said didn’t want sympathy because she knows she does not deserve it.
As the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. If she returns to YouTube, great but whatever content she puts out, will be very different to what she use to do. There is no firm confirmation that she will return to the platform.
It will be some time before we know for sure that she is taking action and making a change. She mentioned in the RTT interview that she did put work into high school and was always involved, according to Elle.
What surprised us the most is that Olivia said that once the scandal had gotten out, she didn’t go back to USC because it would be too embarrassing to have her classmates jeering at her. Not sure whether that is the coward’s way out, but again, it was her decision to make.
Has Our Perspective Changed On Olivia And Her View On Privilege?
As we mentioned earlier, we’re still on the fence regarding whether we believe Olivia and her stance on privilege. As need to see her do something constructive before we can say she has changed. She probably does feel awful about what happened, but she seriously cannot be that ignorant to those who have less than her.
As Gammy said, she is going to be fine. She’s going to bounce back even stronger than ever because she is white and can get whatever she wants. She already has ‘one foot in the door’, as Olivia put it so perfectly.
Does Olivia have a clear view of why people were upset with her and her family? Yes, we think she does. She mentions also that she actually spoke to kids who doing it tough and learned a lot by just listening to them. This is all great, but she should be able to talk about it now that her parents’ court battle is over and they’re in prison.
What’s Next For Olivia?
It’s unclear what Olivia’s next career move will be. If she returns to YouTube at all, she will have to work hard to get people’s trust back. There’s a load of individuals she burned real badly by her attitude towards school. She lost a load of brand deals because of her family’s actions.
If she can prove that she can make up for her bad behaviour, then people may give her another shot. She needs to shine proof that she has changed her ways. The last thing anyone wants is a repeat of the scandal that left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.
She mentioned a while ago that she had started working on a vlog post but that has not come to fruition. Perhaps Olivia wanted to wait until her parents’ trial had conceded to return to it or maybe she scrapped it, given her change of heart. In her two minute spiel of a video late last year, she said that she wanted to say stuff she couldn’t. Going onto the Red Table Talk is the beginning of her possible redemption.
Removing herself from the public eye was smart. Most people who get into controversies, stay in the limelight and bite back. Yes, Olivia posted (and then deleted) this photo:
This within itself is a bad look for her. However, she has come a long way since then. Seeing that having privilege and being inside a protective bubble is not the way ‘the other half’ live, is a sure to be one hell of a wake up call to her. If she can come back stronger than before, good on her. Heck, we might even write a follow up to our post on whether Olivia is a good role model.
Who knows what the new year will bring?
Applauding Jada, Adrienne, And Willow
We also want to applaud Jada, Adrienne, and Willow for being sensitive to this topic. There is a load of feelings surrounding this topic. They all have their own opinion on Olivia’s appearance on their show and that’s okay. We understand that Gammy’s views are different from her daughter and granddaughter.
What is so inspiring about having three generations of the same family host a talk show is they are willing to respect each other’s opinions. As Willow said, she agreed with both her mother and grandmother, but she wanted to hear what Olivia to say before she gave her own view. She reserved judgement before she formed a concrete perspective.
Sure, Adrienne said she didn’t sympathise with Olivia and that in a year’s time, she may feel differently. This goes to show that people’s views can change over time. Until we see a legit change from OJ, we’re just going to reserve any more judgement we have.
