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

[baratron.livejournal.com]

And also the way that dressing and talking are conflated.

My partner Richard is upper middle class (UK variant thereof, which implies that his family were as comfortable and well-educated as possible without actually being born into a title). He speaks to other people with the kind of "posh" British accent that makes many Americans swoon. (That is not the same accent/tone of voice that he uses to speak to his friends, and it's interesting to hear his voice change depending on who's at the other end of the phone.) He also has long hair and a beard, and dresses mostly in black.

People who speak the way he does are portrayed positively, on the whole. (There may be some degree of jealousy towards them for coming from privilege.) People who look the way he does are treated like idiots or scumbags. Never mind that he is a geek, and prefers comfortable clothes, and doesn't want to have to deal with whether or not his clothes match each other in the morning. (Black goes with everything.)

[firecat]

That's a good distinction to make.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

What is Richard's other accent for family and friends? Is it a regional UK accent and not the "posh" accent? (I'm assuming "posh" is something like the old BBC accent -- although I've been hearing Scots and other regional UK accents on the BBC these days).

Is that accent looked on with approval or disapproval in the media?

In the USA our accents are more regional than class, although the older cities in the east (particularly Boston) have class accents. There's an obsolete rich people accent (Margaret Dumont in the Marx Brother's movies) that nobody uses anymore. Well, nobody except my weird friend James, who by the way is from Boston.

As for clothes, this is making me think of the Paul Fussell book Class where he claimed that "bohemians" (what he called Category X) were a separate class. I think no. Bohemians are a branch of Upper Middle, but because you can do it on the cheap, with used clothes and such, you could climb into the bohemian class with a good education (even self-education) and not much money. Wearing black is both bohemian and cheap and easy. (I met a student who bought all his clothes used, and then dyed them black to cover up stains.)

[firecat]

Curiously:

What are you basing the claim "Bohemians are a branch of Upper Middle" on?

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Let's see if I can articulate the argument, although it's really more of a feeling than an argument.

The "bohemian" class is (in general) very well educated and often working in the arts. They come from upper middle class families, although they may not be earning much income or accumulating much wealth. If successful in the arts, they may accumulate a great deal of "cultural capital" or prestige, and may accumulate some degree of wealth. If something bad happens to them (like a health care crisis while not having health insurance) the family can step in and deliver upper middle class quality help.

*However* since the bohemian life-style is cheap (used clothes, shared apartments, etc) you could join it even if you don't come from an upper middle class background. But you won't have a safety net, and you might not feel comfortable unless you also have that degree of education. Self-education does count, though.

Does this make sense?

[firecat]

The argument makes sense. But my experience is that, at least in some parts of what might be called bohemian subculture, there are plenty of people who did not come from UMC families.

For example, among the artistic / subculture people I know, I sometimes observe conflict that seems to be based on the fact that the people in question come from different economic backgrounds.

So I'd like to know whether you / Fussel are basing that part of the claim - that they're mostly from UMC families - on statistical evidence or personal observation.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

It seemed to me that Fussell (who argued that the Bohemian class was a separate social class) had no data whatsoever, and I (who argue that it is a subset of Upper Middle) know I have no data.

So it would be a great question for a real sociologist. I'll bet there's some research out there. On to the Social Science Index!

Tell me more about your observations? I certainly had friends in high school who were working-class counter-culture types, but they pursued upper middle class educations (Reed, Oberlin, whathaveyou.)

In college, the counter-culture types I met were never lower class than middle-middle, although they'd sometimes claim to be. Ditto grad school. One working class friend in grad school wasn't especially counter-culture.

[firecat]

I'm not sure exactly how Bohemian is defined, but I remember discussing Fussell's Class X with my roommate back in the early 1980s. We both had college degrees and had the same job (editor at a universty press, which pays fairly poorly, but as it's in a college town it's possible to live cheaply) but I came from the UMC and he came from a working class family.

We decided that we were YUFFIES (young urban failures).

Since college, I know a fair number of people who live somewhat bohemian/counterculture lifestyles. Most of them went to college for a while but may not have gone to fancy colleges and may not have finished college. Many work in working class (blue collar or pink collar) jobs, or do temp work and odd jobs. Many devote most of their life energy to artistic and political pursuits. Some of them came from families with money but are estranged from their families, so can't count on them in emergencies. Some came from working class or poor families.

In a way these subcultures are kind of a melting pot of different kinds of freaks who for one reason or another didn't stay in their culture of origin.

"Smart" tends to be a common trait.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

It would be interesting to find out about the class background of "bohemian" folks in a systematic way.