hmmm

Continuing adventures of a very small cubicle. In that there aren't any adventures. There is, however, a creepy amount of CNN reading. That can't be healthy.

So this is going around my flist. Privilege meme, below cut. Honestly, I had to read it a few times, because these are--to me--deeply random questions.



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. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.

To participate, copy and paste the list (below) into your blog, and bold the items that are true for you. (comments added in italics)

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
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 motels count?

Your clothing was bought new before you turned 18. - sometimes. It depends on what year.
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
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18.

You and your family lived in a single family house

Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home - does owing one and a half times the value of the house count as owned?

You had your own room as a child
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/or art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family. - literally or figuratively? As in, did I see the bills, or as a child, was I aware that the utilities were hideously expensive?


Okay, I give up. What is that supposed to prove? Somehow--call me crazy--a question on whether one could afford electricity and heat at all, whether one's family vehicles were repossessed regularly, and whether or not pawning things for food might have been slightly higher priority than museums.

Feel free to explain how I'm wrong. I just have no context for what these questions are supposed to be slanted toward--for privilege, there's a very odd mix of socioeconomic/educational without actually hitting the main points and what appears to be culture. Is there supposed to be some kind of correlation between education and parenting skills/parental emphasis on certain things and not others?

ETA: context here from siderea, picked up from another livejournal.

Even with that context...this still doesn't make sense. I have a vague thought on the standard being set here is lower-middle class, reading through, which explains why so many of the questions are an utter mystery for me, but I'm not sure what specifically is being tested for. Involved parents, educated parents, really motivated kid while in school?

Comments

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

I saw this meme but didn't bother to do/ post it. I can see what the meme is trying to do, but it doesn't work on a large scale.

Father went to college
Father finished college.
You and your family lived in a single family house
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.

Yeses to the above, but they were all courtesy of having being in a military family--military housing, commercial plane flight returning from an overseas assignment, dad who went to college and graduated as an adult while taking advantage of some of the military benefits. I'm not sure I'd call that privileged.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd call that privileged.

It's a hell of a lot more privileged than my friend who grew up in a ratty-ass trailer park, with two parents with no post-high-school education and only occasionally enough money to pay to heat the place in the winter.

The point of the thing is that privilege is relative. I don't think it's particularly well-executed, but just because Person A is more privileged than Person B doesn't mean that Person B is not privileged at all.

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd call that privileged.
The point of the thing is that privilege is relative. I don't think it's particularly well-executed, but just because Person A is more privileged than Person B doesn't mean that Person B is not privileged at all.

I agree. That statement was poorly thought out and written on my part.

I read about the original purpose of the questions from the link seperis provided: to make college students aware that not everyone comes from the same background. I was interested when sidurea wrote: 4) Privilege is not just wealth. This is meme game not a simple wealth indicator. I do think that privilege and wealth are not necessarily the same. However, to me, the questions in this meme are essentially equating privilege with wealth.

To me, they seem to equate "privilege" with more upper middle-class or higher wealth (trusts, private schools, cruises etc), which is a too narrow categorization; kind of all or nothing rather than a scale. Did I grow up more well off than others? Yes. I never had to worry about feeling cold in the winter or whether I would have something to eat. I didn’t mean to imply that I felt I was not privileged at all growing up. I was thinking more of privilege = wealthy.

What I was trying to point out was that using a single endpoint to determine privilege (single family home or going to and graduating college, etc.) doesn’t take into account the various routes that one can get there. To this meme, a person who finally goes to college as an adult with military help because he can't afford it otherwise, or who goes to college because both parents worked 2 jobs and went into debt, or went to college on a scholarship are put on the same rung as the person whose parents had absolutely no problem paying for all of it. They all end up with the same privilege of a "college education", but I don't think they are equally privileged, if that makes sense.

As a general tool to remind students that just because they are in the same place doesn’t mean they have the same background, the questions work. I just don’t think it’s very good as a real privilege meme/ survey.