As a lot of people have suggested, no one at Yale can rightly claim to be “systemically oppressed” or subjected to the assaults of “privilege” by others. The notion is laughable on its face. And then there is the University of Missouri graduate student hunger striker. I tweeted this morning that the headline could read, “Graduate Student Goes on Hunger Strike: Ramen Noodle Sales Plummet.”

But lo and behold, the Missouri hunger striker, Jonathan Butler, comes of a family with a net worth near $20 million. You really can’t make this stuff up; The Onion staff must be sitting at their desks today in a state of despair.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the story:

Mizzou hunger-strike figure from Omaha, son of top railroad exec By Joe Holleman Jonathan Butler, a central figure in the protests at the University of Missouri, is an Omaha native and the son of a railroad vice president, the Omaha World-Herald reports. Butler refused food last week in a move to force the university system’s president, Timothy M. Wolfe, from office. Wolfe resigned Monday and Butler ended his hunger strike. Jonathan Butler played high-school football at Omaha Central High, where he won a state championship, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Mizzou, the newspaper reports. He is working toward a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy. He is a member of a prominent Omaha family. The newspaper says that Butler’s father is Eric L. Butler, executive vice president for sales and marketing for the Union Pacific Railroad. His 2014 compensation was $8.4 million, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

When are university administrators going to start standing up to this whole farce?

PAUL ADDS: As an aside, I saw Omaha Central High School when I was in the city two weeks ago. It’s possibly the most impressive public high school building I’ve ever seen.

The students were being let out when I passed the school on my way to the nearby art museum. The student body appeared to be very mixed in terms of race.

Interesting that such a rich kid attended the big local public school.