Comments on: am I privileged?

By: peculiaroldbird

peculiaroldbird — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:40:15 +0000

Hi! I just posted this on my site, too! So your blog came up as a related topic. My understanding, is that this exercise is about recognizing and acknowledging privilege. Its not meant to “say” anything about you on a personal level. And if you gain some understanding of your own privilege, then it makes it easier to understand people who are less advantaged. I think its an exercise in compassion. Its cool that you did it!

By: LG

LG — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:58:28 +0000

I fall under 20, but that’s all useless considering I’m undocumented.

By: Amy G

Amy G — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:16:17 +0000

Funny how this works. Just for fun I did this, and then had my husband do it for himself. He had 4 more privilege factors than me! I always swore that he had a more conventionally privileged childhood than I did, and this exercise confirms it in its own way.

Frustrating that it wasn’t enough for his family and they had to go risk my husband’s future in such a foolish way…I still struggle with this. When there are people immigrating all the time out of such desperation, his family basically did it on a whim. At least it gave me the love of my life. For that, I’m grateful.

I guess this meme also calls into question how we actually define privilege. I feel like I was privileged in childhood to have discovered creative ways to entertain myself without TV, that I learned to love the public library, that my friends came from all over the world, that I learned to be grateful for everything I have, that I learned to think on my feet and adapt quickly to new situations. However, if privilege means certain entitlements and special rights, then no, that isn’t me.

By: laurafern

laurafern — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:03:57 +0000

Definitely. Maybe a sort of east-coast mentality? There are some good ones in there, but a lot of it doesn’t really mean much. I think the point of the college tuition one is not to prove that you are hard-working or diligent, but privileged. I mean, in many ways I am glad I paid my own way for the most part, but that doesn’t really mean I was privileged. I would still argue that my friends who don’t have that debt when they graduate are more privileged (read lucky, better off financially) than I am. Still, it’s certainly a good thing to learn to be responsible with money earlier on.

By: Jack Bruss

Jack Bruss — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:12:18 +0000

It’s an interesting exercise, but basically meaningless, other than it shows the bias of the originater of the survey.

Examples:

1. If you have a lawyer, doctor, or professor relative, you are privileged, but no such mention for police officer, soldier, farmer, engineer, etc.

2. Going on a cruise makes you privileged, but going to a cabin up north or Disneyworld doesn’t.

3. Having parents pay your college costs makes you privileged, but I would argue you are more privileged if you paid your own way, thus learning more about responsibilty and self sufficiency than the “privileged” student. (Admittedly, I thought differently while attending college and stuffing newspapers on Saturday nights for money).