Privilege Meme

This has been going around some of the more sociological blogs online (e.g. Becoming Dr. Warner and Scatterplot) so I thought I’d play along. It is definitely something I’d do with a class. My “yes” answers are in green and some comments are in brown. My total score is 12 out of 33. I’m not sure what that translates too, though.

This is based on “From What Privileges Do You Have?,” an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. Please give them credit.

1. Father went to college

2. Father finished college

3. Mother went to college

4. Mother finished college

5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor

6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers

7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home

8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home (we had a ton of books when I was growing up, but my mom doesn’t think we had this many until I was an older teenager)

9. Were read children’s books by a parent

10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (I took private flute lessons in high school. My grandmother paid for them, I think)

11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18

12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively. (I can’t recall ever even seeing any one of lower-middlish class in the media)

13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.

14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.

15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.

16. Went to a private high school.

17. Went to summer camp.

18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.

19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels (they typically involved sleeping on the pull-out couch on my grandparent’s porch in northern Maine)

20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18. (I was the oldest, without any nearby older cousins to hand things down to me)

21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them. (My huge hand-me-down Ford Crown Victoria station wagon that seated 9 was awesome, though)

22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.

23. You and your family lived in a single-family house. (yes, but we rented)

24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home. (they bought their house after I left for college)

25. You had your own room as a child.

26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.

27. Participated in 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. (huh? people in high school and college have these?)

30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16. (I went to Japan on an exchange program when I was 15)

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. (I remember going to the Maine Maritime Museum and the State of Maine museum and the Boston museum of science– maybe those were school trips, though?)

34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family. (I wasn’t aware of the exact dollar amount, but I knew they were high we were always concerned with cutting heating costs as we lived in a lot of big, poorly insulated homes. We used wood stoves, and turned the heat way down at night etc.)