Class Privillege Checklist

[mllelaurel]

Found in amberite's journal.

From What Privilege Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

The instructions are to bold the true statements. Different people have done different ways; I chose italics for semi-true.


1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college Bachelor's in Engineering
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college Master's in Economics
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor Quite likely? But we're not in good-enough touch with most of our relatives to know for sure, and I may be confusing some family friends for blood relations. Everyone's 'Aunt This' or 'Uncle That' when you're a child, where and when I grew up.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers (By the time I was in high school? Money-wise? Hell no.)
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home Hello yard and library sales! Plus the entire family collection, back in Kiev.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home I wouldn't be surprised, though I never actually counted.
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 Swimming and little bits of ballet and fencing.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 ...If you count the ballet, which lasted like two weeks.
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively. (Over-educated geeks? Not always, and not entirely, though sci-fi's significantly better about it.)
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 (costs after scholarships) [Not done with college yet, but my parents are helping me as much as they can. Still, I'll wind up with significant debts, when it's all over.]
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 (day camp only.)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18 Wouldn't have passed math without him.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels Motels. Pretty crappy ones, at that.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 (Where's the fun in that?)
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child (Six people in a two-bedroom apartment. This was actually when we were fairly well-off. There just wasn't a lot of space available, period.)
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in an 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
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 Primarily to the US.
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
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family


In conclusion, my family's mentally upper-middle class, financially...let's not go there. Most of this has to do with immigrating to the US. Money-wise, the move was a crappy, crappy idea. Many of my answers also have more to do with mindset than finances. By my parents' standards, education comes first. I would probably have had math tutors and SAT prep if we were even poorer.

Comments

[branchandroot]

*thoughtful* It's odd. My answers would put me around middle class, I think, but some of that is more a function of family choices. Camping because we liked it. No new car or phone or credit card because my parents were dead set against things like that; it would have been a financial stretch in some cases, too, but the primary reason was family style. I suspect it's the result of my stepdad coming from a blue-collar middle-class home and my mom coming from a family that bootstrapped themselves up to middle (and upper in a few cases).

Maybe I'll spread this around the freshman seminar teachers at Witt; I bet it would be salutary.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

Family style really plays a big part in all of this, yeah.

I'd love to see what you find, if you were to do this.