-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)

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?

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

My apologies.

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.

*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.

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.