Privilege meme, from kightp and others

[ailbhe]

from:
http://quakerclass.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-privilege-do-you-have.html
... and based on an exercise
developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck,
Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you
participate in this blog game, PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

BOLD WHICH APPLY TO YOU:
Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 [1]
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (costs after scholarships)
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp [2]
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child [3]
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child [4]
You had a phone in your room before you turned 18 Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up [5]
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family [6]

[1] Ballet, art, drama, and French, at primary school level. The money
for fees never lasted a whole term though.

[2] CTYI, three times. Yay!

[3] My mother, my sisters, her friends - we have artistic ability coming
out the wazoo where I come from.

[4] Nothing in here about having your parents' house ransacked by
bailiffs, I note.

[5] They're all free! Ireland's Natural History Museum is funny.

[6] I did know every time the electricity and/or phone got cut off, but
children were not kept informed of actual figures for income or outgoings
when I was a small child, and it wasn't until I was in my early teens
that I was given responsibility for the grocery budget.

==

Very interesting quiz. Class and economic power aren't as strongly linked
where I come from as this quiz implies.

Comments

For my children

[ailbhe]

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (costs after scholarships)
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child [done by friends and family, none bought except pottery, does pottery count?]
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child
You had a phone in your room before you turned 18 Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

[k425.livejournal.com]

I decided not to do it because I could see that the links aren't there. We had loads of books and visited galleries and museums every holiday. But my parents never owned their home. Dad couldn't get a mortgage on his pay. I had a room of my own because council accommodation gave us that - children of different sexes shouldn't share over a certain age, I believe. Not 30+ years ago, anyway. Mum budgeted damn hard so that I could have things she didn't when she was a kid (including those ballet lessons).

We didn't have what this meme views as a privileged upbringing, but I know how privileged my childhood was.

[ailbhe]

No, what you mean is that you didn't have rich parents. You did have the privilege of your own room, and you did have the privilege of ballet lessons.

Linnea can check 15 boxes, aged three, compared to my 16, aged 29. I will be working to further the number of boxes she can tick, though not the TV or phone stuff, nor the financial ignorance stuff. The thing about privileges is that it doesn't matter how you came by them or whether you deserve them; they confer the same privilege no matter what. It doesn't matter that I'm white through no fault of my own; it still gives me white privilege. Living with a man gives me het privilege. The only bad thing about it is that non-white and people who can't pass as het don't get it; the answer is not to remove my privilege but to grant it to everyone.

Which is why council housing tries to stop families being homeless, because shelter is a privilege which ought to be a right.