The story of Elizabeth Holmes has been played out in news investigations, televised documentaries and a current miniseries called The Dropout. She was a Texas gal and extremely intelligent Stanford dropout apparently in a helluva hurry to become a billionaire. To come across as altruistic in her purely monetary life goal, she convinced herself and everyone around her that her billions would come from a 21st century medical invention. The invention would replace traditional blood tests, using a long needle and vials, with something like the new diabetic thin needle prick. The sales pitch, in her made-up revolutionary invention, was that only a ‘drop of blood’ would be needed to test for more than 100 health issues and conditions.
Everyone saw this big-deal invention, well the company name Theranos, at Walgreens. Then before anyone could blink or think, the partnership dissolved and the Latin-sounding name summarily removed from the pharmaceutical chain as Ms. Holmes was under federal investigation. Recently she’s been convicted of business fraud and now awaits sentencing that is expected to be several decades in prison.
The theme of The Dropout is discounting the old adage ‘pay your dues.’ She thought she was too smart to have to spend a couple of years in prison, er, college with all that learning and full comprehension before, say, starting a business … in a field in which she was not qualified as someone who actually earned a degree involving years of lab work, experiments, and studies. She wouldn’t know it, but that is the purpose of higher education.
Economic analysts blame Silicon Valley for Ms. Holmes getting away with her big lie for so long.
But the real reason this young woman was able to fool everyone, especially her board of old white men, is because she was white, blonde with large blue eyes. She looked like their daughter or granddaughter—and they treated her like family. They simply believed every word that came out of her mouth. They gave her a lot of breaks when she messed up, too.
Perhaps for appearance, to come across as an eccentric genius, she wore her long blonde hair in a messy pony tail and often accessorized her usual black pantsuit with a white lab coat attempting serious medical scientist. But it was all part of the smoke and mirrors.
White Anglo Saxon Protestant
Ms. Holmes would have never been able to get away with the enormous lie involving very important leaders and millions of invested dollars if not for her looks and white race. She played the people she knew best, her own kind, because once upon a time her family had wealth, too.
White people have been told they are privileged whether upper class or middle class and even poor. The sociological term is white privilege. A lot of white people, however, in this country have denied this description as they certainly do not see they’re living the easy life. They will say they’ve had to fight for everything they have, same for their parents and grandparents and on back in time. They bristle at the notion that minorities like Blacks and Hispanics maintain white privilege exists. Whites deny it and don’t believe it.
Then the Elizabeth Holmes’ story comes along and reinforces the stereotype.
White privilege can be said of the media’s coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This story is the main news in every news source and has been since it happened. The Ukrainians’ plight, having to fight the Russian war machine from taking over their country and losing their freedom, has been covered in great detail. It is full-on 24-hour news coverage and hard to watch.
Compare it to similar wars that received little and inconsistent news coverage: Darfur, Congo, Syria, Middle Eastern nations and Asian countries, too. The world is full of bully leaders intent on war and committing atrocities against people whose countries their armies have invaded. Ukraine is a predominantly white nation. Why weren’t other nations in the world with the same type of invasion constantly brought to our attention 24/7? Why aren’t they now?
People of color may wonder why.
Ms. Holmes got away with a lot maybe because of her high intelligence and conniving ways.
But who are we kidding? She got away with a bald-faced lie because she was white and somewhat pretty. The mass media cheered her on with virtually no questions asked because she was female. White power begats white power. Ms. Holmes went a step further in her self-deception: She felt entitled to great wealth. Trying to cozy up to a renowned Stanford business professor, a fellow woman, Ms. Holmes was instead scolded by someone who could see right through her. She was warned that because she was female, she could not skip all the steps to business success.
Nah. Not when you’ve got white privilege on your side.
Another aspect of the Holmes’ con may be generational. Every young person is in a hurry to be successful and financially secure. Ms. Holmes’ goal in life was ‘billionaire’ not medical scientist or inventor of something to benefit all mankind. Somehow her wiring was twisted. The prize was not medical advancement but big money. Being a young American in the 21st century, her financial goal was not millionaire but billionaire. What kind of goal is that? It is the goal of a shallow empty person.
The lesson from Holmes—or for Ms. Holmes—is: yes, ma’am, you most certainly do have to pay your dues in life, and even then, success is elusive to most. But, hey, life is not about money anyway. Our lives are far more valuable than money. It shouldn’t take an old wise woman to know that. Ms. Holmes will spend a lot of time thinking about life and what it’s all about. Meanwhile, talk of her redemption is already in the works, according to one documentary, because America loves a good redemption story. Beautiful.