This week, the infamous Olivia Jade Giannulli broke her silence on her parents’ college admissions scandal on Red Table Talk.
Sofia Richie spoke out in encouragement, and is getting hammered for supporting Olivia, being accused of … white privilege?
Olivia posted a clip from her sit-down interview with Jada Pinkett Smith to Instagram.
Sofia Richie, a fellow super-hot-celebrity-kid who is just a few years older, left a positive comment.
"Yes girl!!" she wrote, followed by two heart eyes emojis. "Can’t wait for what’s ahead."
A furious commenter replied to Sofia, clearly feeling that she was wrong to support Olivia in any way.
They accused: "white privilege supporting white privilege."
Sofia could have made a number of replies to that, but she decided to stick to the positive vibe of her original comment.
"We are all human, who make human mistakes," Sofia observed in response.
"Life is too short to wish negativity on anyone," she asserted.
Sofia, speaking to the unhappy commenter, wrote: "Sending you love."
That commenter — whose claim we’ll get into in a moment — was not alone in the sentiment.
Adrienne, Jada’s mother, expressed something very similar on Red Table Talk.
"I found it really ironic that she chose three Black women to reach out to for her redemption story," she remarked.
"I feel like, here we are, a white woman coming to Black women for support," Adrienne continued.
She then lamented: "When we don’t get the same from them."
Adrienne understandably expressed: "It’s bothersome to me on so many levels."
"Her being here is the epitome of white privilege to me," Adrienne assessed.
"At the end of the day," she added, "I really feel like she gonna be okay and she’s gonna recover."
Adrienne added that this would be the case "whether her ass was sitting at this table or not."
Jada explained that she felt that "Olivia deserves a space" to share her story.
"Obviously you do, because I fought it and guess what, she gonna be sitting right there," Adrienne replied.
She then reiterated: "My feelings are what they are … let’s carry on."
For her part, Olivia emphasized that she was not "trying to victimize" herself.
"I don’t want pity, I don’t deserve pity," she affirmed. "We messed up."
"I just want a second chance to be like, I recognize I messed up," Olivia said, "and for so long I wasn’t able to talk about this because of the legalities behind this."
Olivia continued: "I never got to say, ‘I’m sorry that this happened.’ I think everybody feels that way in my family right now."
She shared: "This has been a really eye-opening experience for me."
"And although there’s a lot of negative around it and there’s a lot of mistakes and wrongdoings," Oliva expressed, "it’s led me to have a completely different outlook on a lot of situations."
Does Olivia Jade benefit from, among other things, white privilege? Absolutely.
Remember, white privilege doesn’t mean that one leads a life of luxury, simply that one is not marginalized in terms of race.
It just so happens that Olivia does, in fact, live a life of luxury — but that’s because her parents are loaded. White privilege, at most, made it easier for them to get there.
But to say that Sofia supporting her is "white privilege supporting white privilege" is folly.
Sofia Richie is not white! Her extremely famous father is Black. White-passing is a whole other conversation, but only white people have white privilege.
Don’t yell at me about why mixed-race people are still considered Black. Go back in time about 500 years and speak to the inventors of racism.
While many commenters were quick to call out, no, Sofia is not white, others made more interesting points.
One noted that Sofia’s support of Olivia isn’t white privilege, but green privilege — with "green" meaning wealth and fame.
Financial privilege is a real thing, and class solidarity among the wealthiest people in America is nothing new.
That said … maybe Sofia was just being compassionate.
It’s hard to get angry at someone for going along with their parents’ wishes when they were minors.
But that doesn’t mean that people are wrong to resent the opportunities that Olivia has had handed to her.
