that privilege meme

[firecat]

Swiped from everybody

Acknowledgment to http://quakerclass.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-privilege-do-you-have.html. The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University.

You know, for me it will be more efficient just to include the items that didn't apply and/or have complicated answers.


* Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Technically speaking, possibly not—mom was big on getting rid of stuff we weren't using. But I had access to all the books I wanted.

* The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Insofar as I am white, yes. Insofar as I was/am fat and a geeky dresser, no. And I might argue that women and girls in general were not portrayed positively in the media in the 60s and 70s.

* Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
This trend must have come along after my time. None of my peers did, as far as I know.

* Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
I worked in the summers and that paid for a little bit.

* Had a private tutor before you turned 18
I wonder if these came along after my time, too. I mean, I know they existed before, but they seem more common now.

* Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
The clothing my mother bought me was bought new. I bought some of my own clothing at thrift stores, but that was my choice, not a necessity.

* Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
I got hand-me-down cars, but my dad worked at GM and was required to buy a GM car every year. So the hand-me-down cars I had were almost new.

* Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
Parents didn't approve of the idea, I guess. Actually, despite all the time I spent on the phone just like most teenagers, I think it never even occurred to me that I might want a phone in my room.

* Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
After my time?

* Had your own TV in your room in High School
See the bit about the phone in my room.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how many people I see responding with dismay that they score as "highly privileged" on this test, as if that meant there was something wrong with them. It doesn't mean there is something wrong with you. It just means you were given some of your opportunities and resources, and didn't start from zero. It's important to be aware of that.

Comments

[waterowl.livejournal.com]

Class privileges that I didn't see. I am most definitely upper middle class by any metric, but I didn't get a new car or clothes or phone or a credit card. Those are not the values of upper middle class intelligentsia, but more what might be considered the nouveaux riche.

My accent is seen as the norm and/or educated.
My parent/s expected me to go to college.
My parent/s read parenting books even if they didn't necessarily apply the theories in said parenting books.
I had two or more parental figures actively involved in my life i.e I was not raised by a single parent, so parent and stepparent count or two co-parents living separately but I shuttled between both or I had other family figures in my life.
My parent/s took me on activities that were designed to educate me or enrich my life regardless of the cost - by this metric trips to the library would count.
My parent/s helped me with school work.
My parent/s had white collar profession/s. (I know several software engineers who never finished college)
One parent stayed at home to look after me or took time off work to spend time with me. (This is a privilege of particular kinds of jobs, but not others)
My parent/s told me I was intelligent and taught me things outside of school.

[firecat]

Oh yeah, "I was expected to go to college" is huge.

On the distinction between upper/upper-middle class and nouveaux-riche - I'm not sure how old you are, but I think the personal phone has trickled way down to many people by now, since phones are much less expensive now than they were when I was growing up, and many kids have cell phones in case of emergency.

I think the credit card companies started setting up on campus a few years after my time, offering students cards in their own names secured by their parents. So I don't think that's nouveaux riche any more either.

A new (not hand-me-down and not used) car might still be.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

I distinctly remember my 7th grade science teacher writing on a few of my exams, "You should go to college!" Looking back, I truly appreciate the thought, but at the time, it hadn't even occured to me that I *wouldn't* go to college. Education was very important to my parents, and I was always aware that that's what had made my childhood different very from theirs (well, that and World War II, but you know what I mean :p).

[ailbhe]

"I was expected to go to university" is a big hairy deal. Being expected to and not doing it is... a strange thing to do to people's class perceptions. It cropped up in a.p a few years ago.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, "I was expected to go to college" is huge.

I was, because I was "the smart one".

My brothers weren't.

Being expected to go to college

[bastette-joyce.livejournal.com]

I was definitely expected to go to college. And I was expected to have a "career" (something professional). This was more important than getting married and having kids, not to say that those were not also expected.

If both of my parents had had my mother's background and attitude, this probably wouldn't have been the case. She didn't go to college and never had a professional career. (She was mostly a homemaker, but after my parents' divorce, she held blue-collar jobs.) My father was mainly the one who pressured/encouraged me to "do something" with my life. When I dropped out of college after one year and then worked in factories and clerical office jobs, he called me a "failure".

But oddly, he himself didn't go to college, and he didn't have a professional job. Unless being a sales representative is considered professional? I don't know how to categorize it. He went to department stores and talked to purchasing agents, trying to get them to buy the stuff his employer sold. It turned out he was exceptionally talented at this and made lots of money. Our economic class changed a lot while I was in high school.

But also, I think the education thing is as much cultural as class-related. My father was Jewish, my mother was not. Jews, including working-class Jews, value education very highly. So I'm not surprised that my dad expected us to go to college.