Privileged
Kasia January 22nd, 2008
(From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege 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, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.)
I also extend a curtsy to Lillian at Smithflections, which is where I picked this up.
Bold the true statements.
1. Father went to college (Yes, first in his family to do so.)
2. Father finished college (Yes, and completed his Masters and a specialist certification beyond that.)
3. Mother went to college (Not the first in her family to do so…that was a generation back)
4. Mother finished college (Yes, including her Masters)
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (Well, if my aunt’s former husband counts…he’s a podiatrist…but that seems pretty stretched…)
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers. (I would guess so, but I can’t really swear to it.)
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home. (Heck, the set of encyclopedias gets us halfway there.)
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home. (Again, can’t swear to it, as I never counted…but we had a lot of books!)
9. Were read children’s books by a parent. (I am not sure about this one, as I learned to read quite early - around age 4 - so I don’t know if my parents read to me previously. Big Seester?)
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18. (Swimming, piano, ballet, karate…then if instrumental music in school counts…and I was in a community children’s choir.)
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively. (That depends on how you define “positively” - we usually are portrayed as nerds, but I think this exercise is looking to see whether people like me are usually portrayed as, say, a thug or an unwed mother…no, not usually.)
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18. (HA! As if!)
14. Your parents paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents paid for all of your college costs (well, just about all, plus they paid for my car insurance so I wouldn’t be tempted to work too many hours and be distracted from my studies)
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18 (Does one session with a National Honor Society student from my high school when I was failing algebra count? I don’t think so…)
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels (Almost never that I can remember.)
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them. (No - when I crashed the hand-me-down I was responsible for replacing it. But my dad did lend me the money, which I then paid back just like a car loan.)
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
25. You had your own room as a child.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18. (Yes, though not my own line.)
27. Participatedin a SAT/ACT prep course.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college. (Yes, but it was self-funded - my father wanted to encourage me to invest.)
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
22 out of 34…more than 50% privileged. Hi, I’m Kasia, and I’m a spoiled brat (by these researchers’ standards, anyway.)
