Hah! That’s a serious understatement based on what I witnessed of many well-off American college classmates in the Chinese university we were studying in. And this was despite the fact we were housed in a separate “international student dormitory” with more amenities than available to the local Chinese student population and yes, better food than what’s available to local students and comparable to better offerings at some mid-level Chinese restaurants I’ve eaten at in NYC/California.
I can just imagine the howls of protests from those classmates AND their parents if they were subjected to what my father ate every day for all 4 years in the college dining hall as a full-ride on everything student…soybeans cooked so poorly that the food he was served in the army while doing his 2 years of mandated service was a dramatic improvement in the culinary department.
Not sure he’s going to be trusted to listen to their concerns honestly considering how he was mostly dismissive in the article along with the fact the author admits to holding right-leaning libertarian beliefs in a separate interview.
This is just like someone from the dominant majority who assumes marginalized racial minorities will confide in them even after being open about assuming their concerns/issues are “all made up” or “not a big deal” and then makes an open request for them to tell him/her their stories.
In so doing, he/she doesn’t understand one reason why few/any marginalized racial minorities would be willing to confide on such issues like this to him/her is precisely because he/she has already effectively telegraphed by prior public comments that he/she views them as lying/exaggerating and holds dismissive views about them and their concerns.
Why would someone…especially one from a marginalized group feel inclined to make themselves more vulnerable and possibly provide more ammunition for such a judgmental individual to use to be subjected to further dismissive attitudes or accusations that they’re exaggerating/lying about the issues? To those who experienced this before or knew friends or fellow marginalized group members/allies who had similar encounters, this can be viewed as a baiting tactic similar to ones used by conservative activist James O’Keefe III:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/us/politics/27orleans.html?_r=0
https://www.fbi.gov/neworleans/press-releases/2010/no052610b.htm