Privilege Survey

[jducoeur]

As always, the memes that catch my attention are the ones that require you to say something about yourself. This one is from an unusual and interesting angle.  I got it from cellio, after seeing it in a couple of other places.

Edited to change the "art" answer.

Bold means the statement is true, italic means I don't know or it's complicated:

• Father went to college (Cornell)
• Father finished college (I think he got a Master's, but I'm not sure offhand)
• Mother went to college (ditto -- it's where they met)
• Mother finished college (Bachelor's, I believe)
• Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (my uncle, who has taught at various universities)
• Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers (awfully hard to judge)
• Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
• Had more than 500 books in your childhood home (Not completely sure, although it's plausible.  Certainly we didn't own as many as msmemory and I now do, but we did have a fair number.)
• Were read children's books by a parent (I think, although I'm not 100% certain)
• Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (Not really sure how to categorize "lessons".  Do after-school activities like madrigals and cello count, if they're school-associated?)
• Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (Ditto.)
• The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively ("Like me" is pretty vague, but I'll assume they mean yes.)
• Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18 (No, although my first was not long after.)
• 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 (Close enough, anyway.  I did have a job for most of college, but that was more paying the luxuries rather than the necessities.)
• Went to a private high school (Princeton Day -- fun, weird, experimental.  Main reason I survived high school.)
• Went to summer camp (Until I was about 14, and then started working every summer.)
• Had a private tutor before you turned 18 (Not unless you count my Dad teaching me programming.)
• Family vacations involved staying at hotels (Occasionally, anyway.)
• Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 (Mostly from Sears)
• Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them (No -- drove my Mom's old car through college.)
• There was original art in your house when you were a child (On second thought, yes. It was generally "folk art" -- but at least one of those folk artists wound up in the Smithsonian.)
• 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 (Not counting a few years when I slept on the living room couch when staying with Dad; when they bought the new house, I got what amounted to my own suite.)
• Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course (God forbid -- I think my Mom would have disowned me.  She worked for ETS for many years, and had a pretty low opinion of most such courses.)
• Had your own TV in your room in High School
• Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College (Not in my own name, but I believe my grandfather had probably already started my trust fund.)
• Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (Constantly.  I was flying regularly on my own by the time I was about 11.  These are some of the reasons I am so cynical about the modern assumptions about children's fundamental incompetence.  Heck, I was navigating for my father's plane by the time I was about 8.)
• Went on a cruise with your family (Never did a cruise until this year, although that was mainly lack of interest.)
• Went on more than one cruise with your family
• Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (A few, although we were much more likely to go to ballet or opera in NYC.)
• You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (And the value of money in general...)

Comments

Interesting Meme

[selkiechick]

(Damn- the bold and italics did not stick...)I have made off with your meme and posted it in my own journal!

I think it raises some interesting questions about privilege. I knew that say, having books in our home made us very different than other local families, but there are a number of other things I hadn't really thought about.

Re: Interesting Meme

[jducoeur]

I have made off with your meme and posted it in my own journal!

Heh. That's okay -- this one seems to mostly be spreading LJ-to-LJ anyway.

I think it raises some interesting questions about privilege.

Yaas -- my responses do mark me pretty neatly, despite the occasional lean years we went through...

[serakit.livejournal.com]

I'm wandering off with this for my livejournal as well... thus introducing it to a circle of privileged teens and seeing what happens there...

[jducoeur]

It'll be interesting to see the results. Most of the people who've been doing it in my circle are a bit older than the target audience that I think this was originally intended for. (Some of the questions, like having a credit card before you were 18, are just weird-looking to us 40-somethings.) You are a few years *younger* than the college students I think it was aimed at, which will likely change the results in different ways...

[serakit.livejournal.com]

I think the indicators of privilege have changed since your generation, and the generation that this was written for. Questions like the one about the credit card, for example- a lot of teens I know have those. The indicator of privilege is now whether or not you pay the bills yourself. And having a phone in your room in the era of cells.