Gettin' All Up in That (Cl)ass!

Everybody wanna talk about class and privilege, it seems. This list was originally a staff development exercise on class privilege at Indiana State, and as anyone who ever did the ‘privilege walk’ in a women’s studies or sociology class remembers, some of the responses are comically loaded with denials of privilege.

My family owned 2 homes all my life. One was wherever my dad was working and the other was the family farm which had been in our family for well over 100 years. We lived on or very near big water all my childhood and had boats (yes plural) both sail and power. For a number of years we even owned an island. Yup a for real ‘island’ in the Chesapeake Bay. One plus mile long by about a half mile wide. We went to both public and private schools. We always had very good medical insurance.

But… We all also wore hand-me-downs clothes, we rode hand-me-down bikes, we never vacationed ANYWHERE but the family farm. And those boat(s) we had… we spent far more time working on the engines to keep them running than we did riding around in ‘em. My father kept us long on hugs, but very short on pocket money. We had to earn everything we wanted.

Double-u. Tee. Eff.

Being that we’re mindless followers up in here, we’re going to play this game, too. Yay!

In your response, include only the circumstances that were true for you (and please feel free to expound and opine where you see fit). Also, do you think this list is flawed? What is it missing? How have you benefitted from privilege in ways other than those listed?

(Hat-tip, Racialicious.)

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
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
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
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 art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • *Father finished college
    *Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
    *Were read children’s books by a parent – i actually dont remember my mom reading to me, but i do remember us reading together, and most often it was me reading to her; i remember coming home on my last day of kindergarten with a book that my teacher gave me (she gave us all one book as a parting gift).. i jumped in my mama’s lap and read the whole thing to her, front to back on my own for the first time. since then that’s what we did.
    *Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 – i only had a piano lesson. just one. then i quit. does that count?
    *The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively – er, sometimes? do u/they mean when i was a kid? this question seems a little outta place
    *Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs* – my mom & sometimes my dad + scholarships paid for it
    *Family vacations involved staying at hotels
    *Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 – not ALL.. but by the time i hit 14 or so i wasnt in hand-me-downs anymore. does that count?
    *Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
    *You and your family lived in a single family house
    *Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
    *Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
    *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

    hey, whats a privilege walk? we never did those.

  • Tasha

    Had more than 50 books in your childhood home(i’m an only child!)
    Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18(ninjitsu the neighborhood was tough i was naive…guitar…catholic school what can i say)
    Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course(kaplan sucks i understood not a thing)
    Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16(my moms a damn immgrant of course! but i was 1 and never went back until i was 18)
    You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family(i hate math but i was the spokeperson so i didn;t know how much but i was the person they spoke too since age 10)

  • Tasha

    just wanna add i lived in a ghetto ass neighborhood
    we were poor (not dirt poor my mom’s family was dirt poor)
    and i’m not sure if this list worked for me

  • LH

    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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

  • K.

    Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
    Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
    Were read children’s books by a parent
    Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
    You and your family lived in a single family house
    You had your own room as a child
    Had your own TV in your room in High School

    I come from humble beginnings (obviously).

  • Father finished 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 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
    Went to summer camp
    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
    You and your family lived in a single family house
    You had your own room as a child
    Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
    Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
    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

    Is this the part where I write something like, “semi-privileged and proud?”

  • aprilleticia

    Father went to college
    Mother went to college
    Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
    Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
    Were read children’s books by a parent
    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
    Went to summer camp
    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
    You and your family lived in a single family house
    You had your own room as a child
    Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
    Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
    You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

  • devessel

    Both parents finished graduate school.
    Have several relatives and close family friends who are attorneys, physicians, or professors.

    Not sure about the class of all of my high school teachers/some, yes.
    Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
    Were read children’s books by a parent
    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, but I was responsible for the balance
    I paid most of my college costs (and am still paying on those loans)
    Went to a private high school
    Family vacations involved staying at hotels
    My clothing was not all bought new before I turned 18. A lot of it was sewn by my mom, especially when I was younger.
    There was original art in your house when you were a child
    Had a phone in your room before you turned 18, WHICH I PAID FOR.
    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
    Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
    Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
    Went on a 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

    I should also add that from 11 to about 15 I lived in Latin America and the Caribbean. My parents did immigrate from the Caribbean for college, but never wished to revoke their citizenship–and remain Permanent Residents to this day.

  • GVG

    Not sure what the point of this was, but I’ll play along. It’s much easier to do the things I didn’t do or have than the things I did, so here they are.

    Did not

    • Went to a private high school (Left my prep school which did go from pre-k -12 for a specialized Science and Math HS)

    • Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them (we live in NYC, no need for a car,)

    • Went on a cruise with your family (My mother HATES cruises)

    • Went on more than one cruise with your family

    One of my best memories as a child was my bedtime book reads – it went from my mother reading to me to when I could read me reading to her. It was one of the greatest things we have shared to date. I think I’ve been read and read – The little prince (English and French)- easily more than 300x as a child. Still one of my all time favorite children’s books. I live for the day I can do it for my kids.

  • GVG: What don’t you get/like about the exercise?

  • GVG

    Up until this moment, I had never heard of a “Privilege Walk” – so I looked it up. Below is what I found.

    “The purpose of this exercise is to provide participants with an opportunity to understand the intricacies of privilege in American society. Since this is a powerful exercise and should be thoroughly processed, please plan on spending at least one hour for this exercise. You can spend more or less time depending on the number of statements you make to participants.

    Participants should stand shoulder to shoulder facing the same direction in a straight line without speaking. Ask participants to listen carefully to each statement, and take the step required if the statement applies to them.

    Ask the participants to remain where they are and to look at their position and the positions of other participants. Suggested questions for processing are: What happened? How did this exercise make you feel? What were your thoughts as you did this exercise? What have you learned from this exercise? What can you do with this information in the future?”

    I get what this “exercise” is supposed to do for the participants, but I tend to hate exercises like this because all they seem to do, in my opinion, is divide us further. They further separate us by inconsequential facts that make us see each other for anything other than people stuck in the same effed up world just trying to make it better for us and those around us. While at the same time, attempting to make people feel bad for being born into a better situation than another was which they had no control over in the first place.

    Just because someone may have had a couple of more things than someone else doesn’t mean they are unsympathetic to the pains and struggles of those who didn’t. Privilege actually, dependent upon who raises you, comes with an instilled responsibility to help those around you who weren’t as blessed, especially being black. Yet, that side of the story seems to never be told. I wasn’t frat because it wasn’t my thing but when the Alpha’s reached their Centennial last year, I hosted an event in their honor, to celebrate a black organization that pushed black men further as a collective – socially, academically, and professionally – than many other organizations in that same span of time. They had a long history of social outreach and volunteer work, which I think it was the direct result and reflection of founders who came from a more privileged background and understood we as a people had to help us as a people. However, no one talks about that part of black privilege. That’s why so many of my friends use to lie about where they came from and what they had to be accepted by the other black kids who treated them like crap for being a bit better off. Trust me when that light is shining in your face and you’re being pulled out of that car and called out of your name – no one gives an F where you grew up and if you did Kaplan for your PSATs or not.

    What did you want to gather or accomplish from this “Privilege Walk” G.D.?

  • GVG: One of the things that’s consistent with privilege walks in my experience is the alacrity with which people defend their privilege — or talk about how other subjectivities cancel their privilege out (‘i may be wealthy and white, but i’m a woman…so therefore i’m not privileged.’) Most of the time, though, people just get defensive. I’m not attacking you, but it seems like that’s what you’re doing.

    Privilege is, necessarily, a finite thing; if one person wields it, someone else doesn’t and can’t. It’s also complicated by issues of authenticity (your friends lying about their backgrounds).

  • Also, there’s usually a lot of crying and guilt. (I’m dead ass.)

    GVG: You said, “I get what this “exercise” is supposed to do for the participants, but I tend to hate exercises like this because all they seem to do, in my opinion, is divide us further. They further separate us by inconsequential facts that make us see each other for anything other than people stuck in the same effed up world just trying to make it better for us and those around us. While at the same time, attempting to make people feel bad for being born into a better situation than another was which they had no control over in the first place.”

    Would you take the same issue(s) with this exercise if it were focused on white privilege in lieu of class privilege?

  • slb

    Father finished college
    Mother went to college
    Have any relative who is an attorney
    Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
    Were read children’s books by a parent (i really can’t remember, but i’m assuming yes. i was reading before kindergarten; someone must’ve taught me.)
    Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (“tumbling,” during my fat phase. i still can’t do a cartwheel to save my life.)
    Family vacations involved staying at hotels
    Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
    You had your own room as a child
    Had your own TV in your room in High School
    Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
    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

  • Tiffany In Houston

    Father went to college (did not finish, went to Air Force)
    Mother went to college
    Mother finished college (also went to graduate school; has 2 master’s degrees)
    Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
    Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
    Were read children’s books by a parent
    Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (gynastics/tap)
    Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
    Went to summer camp (does grandmama’s in the country count??) LOL!!!
    Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
    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
    You had your own room as a child
    Had your own TV in your room in High School
    Your parents took you to museums as you grew up
    You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

  • GVG

    Don’t’ do that – try to make it seem as if I’m on the defensive of an attack that you haven’t even delivered. You know as well as I, especially since you’ve actually participated in the exercise, that it’s designed to separate the percipients into categories with each step forward, or lack thereof, of the haves and have-nots. Which then becomes an us and/against them situation and by default makes it a defensive scenario of opposing realities. The reason my friends lied is the same reason smart kids act dumb – they wanted to fit in and not get there asses whipped. For whatever reason I was comfortable enough with myself not to care enough to lie, but we all have our things as children we have to overcome and learn from. Sheeiiitttt I was Haitian in the early 80s and saying it out loud – you think I didn’t have a couple of fights and momentary thoughts of listening to the people that told me to just lie and say I was just American as everyone believed.

    My response was in no way me trying to cancel out my privilege – I’m proud of where I came from and the many blessings I had from my parents. I live each day to build on my prosperity to give an even better life to my kids. I live a great life and know for a fact that if I had grown up differently with a different understanding of what was possible for me than my outing last night alone would never have been a possibility. Good, bad, ugly – I am who I am and proud of it. Those who know me know the life I lead and what that means to us as a people. I just think these exercises do more harm than good and have lived long enough to know I’m not going to change my mind on the matter.

  • GVG: Care to holla at the other question?

  • Father went to college
    Father finished college
    Mother went to college
    Mother finished college
    Had more than 50 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
    Went to summer camp
    Family vacations involved staying at hotels
    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
    You had your own room as a child
    Had your own TV in your room in High School
    You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

  • This looks like a list that doesn’t even begin to look at the privileges of citizenship and language, so I’ll try to add some of mine that encompass those things.

    Father and mother went to community college. Dad got an AA. Frankly, this puts me ahead of a lot of other Chican@s since going to CC meant that my parents graduated from a high school here.

    My parents read to me. Check. My father didn’t make a lot of money, but we did fine on one income (four kids!) in the suburbs of LA. My mom didn’t begin to work until my youngest brother started school, and even then she only works part-time and mainly during school hours.

    Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18. I took dance and swimming lessons. Participated in sports and church choir.

    Went to summer camp. Does a week camping with the Girl Scouts count?

    There was original art in your house when you were a child. Nope, but there is now! My mom loves painting.

    You and your family lived in a single family house. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home. Check.

    Had your own TV in your room in High School. Check.

    Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College. Nope, but my siblings have this ’cause my dad got in to it later. I started my Roth IRA right after I graduated college.

    Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16. Mexico! I also went to Australia and the UK. Yeah, I know.

    Went on a cruise with your family. Nope, but we’ll be going later this year.

    Family vacations involved staying at hotels. Some, but definitely not all. I never thought of going to Las Vegas as a vacation.

    You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family. I’m from LA, so this isn’t relevant. However, we didn’t have central air conditioning in our home. We’d only use the boxy AC in the window when it was really hot.

    Immigration stuff:
    – Parents were legal immigrants.
    – I was born here, thus citizenship or legal status was never an issue. I didn’t have to worry about not being able to access things like financial aid.
    – Fluency in two languages, especially English. Parents are fluent in both too. Thus, they never had issues communicating with any of my teachers or getting involved at school.

  • Oh yeah, what about simply growing up in a two-parent family? How come that’s not on the list?

  • nichole

    i’ll give this a go.

    *Father went to college (he was accepted with a full athletic scholarship and won additional monies for writing but he went into the navy)
    *Mother went to college (after i was in junior high school.)
    *Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. (my uncle is a lawyer)
    *Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
    *Were read children’s books by a parent (i don’t remember being read to as a child but i always had books, and my mother got me a subscription to sweet pickles. no, wait. i remember my mother reading me the hungry caterpillar, which is still my favorite children’s book.)
    *Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (clarinet, in middle school, during school hours)
    *Went to a private high school (i went to a magnet school for arts. does that count? i also attended a magnet school for the sciences in junior high and was invited to attend magnet school for the arts during middle school but didn’t want to “appear white” so i went to the hood school. after a friend ended up pregnant in 6th grade, i decided that “being white” because i was smart was better than being pregnant before i got my period more than once)
    *Went to summer camp (one summer, and it was during the day. no overnight stuff. we were herded around on fisk’s campus and made to sweat like pigs. we walked there and back). (oh. and my sister went to governor’s school at mtsu for theatre and i participated in upward bound one summer).
    *There was original art in your house when you were a child (that my mother, aunt, and paternal grandmother made)
    *Had a phone in your room before you turned 18 (but this was after i had a job and paid for the line myself)
    *You and your family lived in a single family house (we lived in the projects until it was time for me to go to school then we moved into a lower-middle class neighborhood where people go after they escape the projects)
    *Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home (we got the hook-up on an older house via family connects. the house eventually burned in a fire b/c of faulty electrical wiring)
    *Had your own TV in your room in High School (it was a gift from my mother’s suitor at the time)
    *Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (we went to the parthenon once.)
    *You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (i knew we were always getting fussed at about the hot water bill and leaving windows and doors open because of bills. i never knew the exact amounts of anything. we didn’t have central air/heating until i was in high school. i remember pipes freezing and busting and boiling hot water to wash up with. we also had to put out pots of water on top of the radiators when it got too hot b/c i got nosebleeds from the dry air)

    to go a bit further…
    *my parents divorced when i was 12
    *father battled addiction and alcoholism which contributed to his inability to pay child support consistently
    *in my late twenties, i found out that my mother supported our family of 5, then 4, on $20-25,000/year (she won’t tell me the exact amount but my first salaried job was $27k in 2000- in new orleans- and she said that was more than she made while we were growing up)
    *i qualified (and received) for free/reduced lunch all throughout my k-12 years
    *i never flew until college
    *my family never took vacations together until we were all adults

    hm.

  • LH

    I never answered the questions about this list, which I will now. I don’t know that I’d say the list is flawed, largely because I don’t know what I’d compared it to. Privilege, as the list indicates, is relative.

    Perhaps tellingly, I think that some of the items aren’t so much indicative of privilege as they are of what’s likely a solidly middle class existence. And now that I think about it, some of the items struck me as incongruous, e.g., mention of original art work and heating bills.

    To whatever extent my upbringing was privileged, I believe it served to preempt greatly aided in me starting a subscription to the orthodoxy of monolith. For that more than anything else, I am thankful.

  • LH

    A redo: To whatever extent my upbringing was privileged, I believe it greatly aided in me starting a subscription to the orthodoxy of monolith. For that more than anything else, I am thankful.

    My apologies.

  • Father went to college (graduateed with a degree in Mathematics)
    Father finished college (he’s a building inspector)
    Mother finished college (Shes a nurse. Has been since 1976)
    Had more than 50 books in your childhood home (Do encylopedias count?)
    Were read children’s books by a parent (Before I was born and whil I was a toddler)
    Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (Of course, who hasn’t)
    Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (Of course, my parents taught me a range of different things.)
    Went to summer camp (only for one summer)
    Family vacations involved staying at hotels (One vacation with the entire immediate and extended fam to VA Beach.)
    Had a phone in your room before you turned 18 (When I was 16. I rarely used the phone then, and I rarely use it now at 21.)
    You and your family lived in a single family house (Yup. For 5 years and my mother has owned her semi-attached house since 1987.)
    Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home (I still live at home lol and my mother has owned our house since 1987)
    You had your own room as a child (From about 14 until the present)
    Had your own TV in your room in High School (From 13 until..)
    You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (Of course, I don’t think most kids grasped the concept of bills when we were younger.)

  • Pingback: A Battle of Faith and Love » Thoughts on Privilege…()

  • Aisha

    Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
    Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
    Were read children’s books by a parent
    Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
    The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed our 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
    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
    You had your own room as a child
    Had your own TV in your room in High School
    Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16

    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

  • GVG

    G.D.

    At the time, I wrote my original response your second post and question hadn’t posted yet, so I just saw your question now. I’d like it if you would answer my question as well. What did you want to gather or accomplish from this “Privilege Walk”?

    Your question to me was – “Would you take the same issue(s) with this exercise if it were focused on white privilege in lieu of class privilege?”

    I would take issue with it if it had to do with race instead of the “Black Caste system”, however, the issues would be different. I’m obviously more sensitive to subject matter that focuses on my race and me than I might tend to be with issues that focus on other races. I’m aware of my biases and how in defending my race I might contradict points I would make in another discussion concerning another race. The problem lies for me in the divide. I think we as a race are so separated and taught to see ourselves as this or that instead of just one race dealing with the same effed up, systematically racist world that we get bogged down on inconsequential details that don’t help our cause at all. Now understand I’m not saying that we are all the same because of our skin color. I’m saying that as one race we need to be more united even with our difference to accomplish the goal of betterment for us all as a people. The main issue I take with the “Privilege Walk” and other “Have and Have not” conversations is that it never really leaves you with a resolutions just a bunch of reopened wounds on both sides of the financial divide as to who had what and who couldn’t get what. A person’s spirit, intentions, and actions should be the ruler by which you judge someone not their ability or inability to be able to charge a shirt at Aeropostale at 16.

    Here’s the thing I tend to not understand about you – after reading your responses it seems as if we had very very similar childhoods and you would have been standing in the same box as me with some other people more than a few steps behind us looking like “Oh G.D.. You’re one of them” Yet, you write as if your one of the people looking at the “privileged” from behind as they make excuses for their circumstances. I don’t claim to know you nor your background, but based solely on those answers – do you truly not understand the plight of the “black privileged” in an America that doesn’t believe he/she exist outside of the Cosby show – even amongst other blacks and even if they do that they’re automatically Oreos or less down for the cause? Do you acknowledge your own privilege and the avenues to success that it provided for you?

  • Cindy: I think we should try to come up with a list we think works better. What say you?

  • quadmoniker

    I was the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
    I had more than 500 books in your childhood home (my mom was definitely a reader.)
    I was read children’s books by a parent.
    Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (in addition to public school, which I’m not sure counts, I had dance lessons and piano lessons.)
    The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
    Went to a sumemr camp (though it was free!)
    My parents bought me a car that was not a hand-me down from them (though it was 10 years old and cost $2,000, and I lived in a really rural area and worked so I needed to get around.)
    I had a phone in my room before I turned 18.
    My family and I lived in a single family house (though most people do in my hometown, even if it’s a mobile home, which we lived in until I was 6).
    My parents owned their own house before I left home (and it was just hit by a tornado!).
    I had my own room when I turned 14.
    I was unaware of how muc heating bills were for my family, but that’s because my mom didn’t talk about money.

  • NDH,Esq.

    Well… shows I certainly wasn’t “privileged” enough for that exercise.
    -Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
    -Had your own TV in your room in High School
    -Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16

  • Alright.

    -Mother went to college (Dropped out of Spelman. Had a baby…)
    -Had more than 50 books in your childhood home (Mostly paperback versions. LOL)
    -Were read children’s books by a parent (Yup!)
    -Went to summer camp (Once in 1988, I think.)
    -Had a phone in your room before you turned 18 (Just an extension of the same land line.)
    -You and your family lived in a single family house (2BR rowhome.)
    -You had your own room as a child (Only child.)
    -Had your own TV in your room in High School (I lucked up with this.)
    -Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (Franklin Institute)

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