Why do I get the impression that Bowie is somewhat of a brat? Probably nothing to do with his fatuous mother's idea of parenting, right?
Kids do act out and become little monsters when it's the only reliable way to get parental attention (even if it's negative attention). At his age, being a brat isn't a condemnation of the child, but of the parents who give him no choice but to be one in order to make his needs known. Whether those needs ever get met--well, that's another story.
He's got a mother who indulges and spoils him when it's easy for her to do so, or when he behaves in specific ways that please her--but then leaves him, sometimes for days on end. And she's been doing this practically since he was born, before he could even begin to comprehend why. Hell, he's still too young to comprehend why. He may have more reliable people in his life, but they're not his mother. And on top of that, his dad went far away, and his brother (who is clearly not the favorite; even little kids can pick that up) has been sent to live with somebody else.
So I would totally expect Bowie to be a "brat," because he has no means to make sense of his feelings of abandonment and uncertainty, and acting out in order to more reliably get the attention he needs from the adults in his life goes hand-in-hand with that.
Why should anyone pay for this chicks college fund? I'm still paying for mine via loans. Take out a loan like the rest of us. Oh wait... you're black, according to Tess, you can't be expected to earn your own way. (I have nothing against Joelle. I just get pissed when people expect handouts.)
That she's black also makes her eligible for all kinds of scholarships and grants that are not available to white students, plus she'll get preferential consideration for a lot of scholarships, grants, internships, etc. that are open to a wider range of applicants. And if she actually majors in something useful and plays her cards right, she'll have employers falling all over themselves to hire her before she even graduates--thus giving her the means to pay back her loans. If she's not majoring in something useful, why should I support bad decision-making?
I don't know her, and don't have anything against her, but she does have advantages in college and beyond that are based on her ancestry that white students don't. It's been that way since the '80s, and I'm sure there's a huge amount of financial resources available to black students now that weren't around back then.
But of course Tess wouldn't know that, having barely graduated from high school.
