privilege meme

[keryx]

Bold the ones that are true for you.
The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.

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 [Was close, I think]
Were read children's books by a parent [But way more adult (not "adult" adult, you know, Stephen King and Dickens and stuff) books!]
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 [Piano, harp, dance, art classes]
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively [I guess - I mean, white yuppies, sure.]
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 (hahahahahahaha)
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school [I didn't. But DID go to a private middle school, though on a scholarship]
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 [Though I'm not positive on this one, I assume that it had to be.]
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 [Does mine & my grandmother's count? Cause yes, then.]
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 [At one point, I shit you not, I had two. Navy housing gave us a townhouse with 3 bedrooms. So I was a mostly working-class kid with a PLAYROOM.]
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

One of the big class-based predictors of academic success is supposed to be the presence of books in your house. My parents both came from factory-working families, but were avid readers (mom read magazines, but was also in school for most of my lower school years, so lots of college textbooks, while dad read assloads of fiction). Both of my parents shared books with me, and I don't just mean the books themselves but conversation about them.

I don't know why I felt the need to point that out, except that a) I was always a big nerd and b) I am now an equally big yuppie. So the research is right in my case.

Comments

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

Some of us at work were talking about the Scholastic Book Club and our memories of such. Some of us were talking about it because it was the only time they were able to get their own books, some of us talked about it as this sort of proto-shopping experience. It was interesting to hear the different emotions that it brought up.

[bookgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh Scholastic book club!!!

I remember begging my dad for change so I could pick something out because you could usually find something for around 2 bucks.

I adored Scholastic book club, and the little slip of paper order form and change I would put in an envelope.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I remember that book club! That was one of the first times I remember OWNING my books vs. going to the library. It was very exciting to be able to read something again without the pressure of having to remember to take it back.

[chubbyninja.livejournal.com]

my mom always gave me books as she finished them, from right after i learned to read right up to present day (in fact she actually brought me one when she visited me today.) I used to try to keep up with her, but now i dont have a chance. She is on the book-a-night plan.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwww. So do you have a big stack of "books mom left here" at your house now?

[chubbyninja.livejournal.com]

nah... i dont get all of them anymore. I've got two or three right now that i havent read yet.

[sheana.livejournal.com]

See, the books thing is somewhat misleading; while we rarely bought books, I had a library card and the library was free (er, aren't most?) and so I still read voraciously - I just had to return them at the end.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's why owning books is tied to class? My parents bought books in addition to library visits (I don't know what it would've cost to support my childhood 5-10 book a week habit at any bookstore, but I'm sure it was more than they could afford), but I'm not sure how the two things are theoretically different. I mean, what if 40000 books passed through your house, but you only owned a religious text?

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

what's really interesting is books...between used book stores, thrift stores, library sales, and 'cover tears' at drug stores, grocery stores, and book stores or anyone who works at a retail place that sells books are hugely accessible to the poor. When I worked at CVS in high school I got a ton of free books. Access to books, like clothing is somewhat of a hussle game that a lot of folks find their way around.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

yeah. every year, the church my parents went to would have a huge picnic, and part of that was a massive book sale. And if you volunteered at the picnic, you always got to take home bags and bags and bags of free books. They might have been the *best* or *newest*, but they certainly fueled my childhood.

And then in highschool, I got a job at the library. So library fines were a thing of the past, as was the "no more than 30 books at any time" limit.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

my work would do a similar sale for charity...and on the last day everything was either 25 or 50 cents... that is when I'd decend on the volumes like locusts.

[puzzlement.livejournal.com]

Interesting, although not I guess surprising, how much of this applies to Australia. Things that I think don't apply include heating bills, which, while some areas need heating, are generally not the first bill to break people's finances, and there are very few areas where you would be more than uncomfortable without heating in winter.... and IRAs, the equivalent of which are now compulsory and are therefore just a marker of "had a job in high school", which might be an inverse class marker if anything.

My mother is a reasonably avid reader. My father astonished us all by reading a book over Christmas; the first book he'd opened in what has to be several years, but he's certainly more than functionally literate and also politically aware; he just likes his media broadcast. My background was poor hanging onto middle class. (At the worst times, poor as in we wouldn't have been able to afford heating and were arguably malnourished, but were luckily living in a tropical climate at the time.) But my mother is from a particularly privileged background and very strong pressure was applied to, for example, go to university and delay marriage and childbearing (and particularly the latter without the former).

[keryx.livejournal.com]

That IS interesting - I wouldn't have thought about the difference geographically in heating bills, but that's true within the US, too. And I had no idea about the IRA thing in Australia.

Ah, the internet... so educational.

[puzzlement.livejournal.com]

As you would guess, knowing how superannuation (retirement savings and investments) work is still a strong class (and age) marker.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

The tying of class with book ownership has always bothered me... I come from a working class background (where most people only attended college as adults, if ever) but books are a huge part of our lives on my Mother's side of the family... where my father's well off family all have degrees but are not avid readers.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

It does seem a little backwards & 19th-century-ish, maybe based on the time when having a library/book collection in your home was a status thing whether you read or not.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

I think it goes back to assumptions of class/art/reading/literate-ness... which... are just totally gross and classist.

Hell, my first boss at the company I am at... who was a librarian, did not own any books. He was surprised when I brought books to the baby shower.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Oh, the class stuff wrapped up in art... it is tangly. I mean, in the case of writing it's historically been the assumed province of only an "educated" upper class - both its production and consumption. But performing arts are different - dance, music & even to an extent theatre are all "popular" arts that are supposedly consumed by people who are economically well-off. I can point to some ways that divide has changed today, but also to ways it's just as bad as ever.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

The history of writing.. that the poor folks never learned it, slaves were forbidden to access it, that women had to use false names in publishing inherently ties that art to class - the same with dance... the division in schools based so much along lines of class and race, and the same is said of music.

I was classically trained in ballet for a decade (due to much sacrificed on my Mother's part) and seeing how that 'training' shaped both my views on art, and 'acceptability' was frightening. There was a lot of shit I had to unpack.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

The book thing still seems a good indicator, though, because it isn't about money so much as it is about attitude and what is valued. Because books open up and change perspectives and make the world a more accessible place for kids.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

And that is why I think it is a horrible indicator.

If access to books was predicated on funds, than ya, I wouldn't balk at the inclusion of it in this meme. But to assume only certain classes of folks encourage a change of perspective, and making the world more accessible for kids is nothing short of classism.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

But class is not necessarily dictated by funds. Class is about status, not money. This isn't a socio-economic list, it's a strictly class-based one. And classes DO exist - to deny otherwise is to ignore a huge part of the problem in American society. The assumption is not that only certain classes want their children to do well - it is that valuing reading enough to own books in the home indicates a certain attitude and a certain ability. EVERYONE wants their kids to do well, and I think most people want their kids to do better than they have done. But I also recognize that the reality of our world means people interpret that in different ways.

We had books in my home growing up - and it was because they were all mine. My mom read a little bit but father.... He's not a reader at all. He actually calls me up and tells me when he has read a book because it is an event. And it has nothing to do with economics - he actually comes from a VERY privileged background. It's the attitude behind it - he takes books for granted and doesn't value them. My mom, on the other hand, comes from a very working class background and even though she doesn't read (she has dyslexia and reading is a lot of work for her), she knew reading was an important part of me doing well - she knew education would help me make a better life for myself as well, whereas it was just a default in my father's family and when my father didn't go to college, it was still okay because, eh, it was just college.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Your family's interactions around money and education must have been really interesting!

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I grew up strangely astride two different classes, two different socio-economic groups as well. We spent time at the country club with my dad's parents, doing golf related things, but activities with my mom's family - with whom we had more day-to-day interaction - were more likely to involve dirt roads and trampolines in North Florida. It was always my mom's family who valued my intelligence and my academic goals. My father's family just saw it as a totally normal thing, even though none of them have graduated college (my father's family was involved in the golf course industry and my grandfather is a golf course designer).

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

I argue that class based on status is entirely built around classism. I went into a bit earlier in the thread with keryx but to assume that some low paying jobs (teacher, artist, etc..) are acceptable is entirely predicated on the original status of the person when they started out in their training. In theory it'll take more $$ to be a teacher, rather than a garbage collector - and that is why that job is 'ok' while both are obviously necessary in society.

Your personal experiences with class are of course valid, but they show how wide and vast the human experience is. My fathers family - largely college educated with 'respectable' careers in engineering & the like generally did not read, enjoyed crass humor, and did all the 'unclassy things' that my working class, but opera loving mother's side of the family abhored.

As far as college, I think any training will of course further a persons career... but the idea that college = acceptance into middle class is something a lot of working class folks balk at for a variety of reasons, but that is another rant entirely. I should add that I am a returning college student, I had to drop out at age 19 because I had no money and could not afford to incur the lofty debt that surrounds U.S. colleges today. I also hate hearing 'wow you are really well spoken for a person without a degree'

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying it ISN'T classist and maybe that's the source of our miscommunication. I just acknowledge that classism exists BECAUSE classes exist.

My father's family didn't give two figs for education and they were the ones who were truly privileged (boarding school in Switzerland privileged). My mother's working class family were the ones who saw education as a gateway to a better life. However, they also think it's kind of a frivolous pursuit. It's an interesting dichotomy.

I'm now the only person on either side of my family to have a college degree. That goes for my cousins on both sides as well. I'm also surrounded by two distinct groups of people - those who are pursuing post-grad degrees and those who disdain college. Then there's my husband who is returning to college at 33 to get his A.A.. And he gets the same reaction - because he is incredibly well-read and creative and he comes from a family where education and creativity were highly, HIGHLY valued.

So it isn't just my personal experience - after all, the plural of anecdote is not data! I'm not using my experience to trump yours. But there is a general cultural trend. It might be that this list doesn't apply specifically to YOU but that doesn't make the list any less of an interesting tool for encouraging people to examine class privilege.

misposted elsehwere.... but here ya go

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

maybe this is another semantics thing, but do you think classism exists because classes exist, or because a heirarchal, controling, patriarchal society that is based around keeping the 'lowest' low and self hating.

I was questioning the cultural trend, because I think we only talk about it within the set parameters of this 'self hating low' kind of reality where any of us who did grow up working class/poor who had access to books, who had parents or extended family who were voracious readers.

The tool was interesting, but seemed so lacking.. if you are talking about class privilege why didn't financial aid come up, why wasn't the question of 'did your parents graduate high school' come up, hell why didn't TV ownership come up right next to books?

All I'm debating is the tying of 'culture' to class... because while there is some economic privilege needed for some access.. a lot of this discussion is shaped purely by class-ist assumptions that have gone unquestioned.

again, I apologize if I seem argumentative or difficult... I just found this survey really limiting, and get very frustrated in such discussions because the assumed cultural trends are currently impossible to separate from the silencing that happens to the poor when they talk about their experience.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

But the question in this meme (which has other iffy ones as well - we're all responding to the book thing in part because that caught my eye in the first place) is about having a collection of books, owning books, and that does speak to economic luxury. If you assume that owning books is a luxury, that is.

There is another aspect of social - not economic so much - class that isn't addressed in this meme, and certainly colors the book thing. People who don't have the money for a lot of luxuries may still own books, but I think we as a society do consider those folk of a different "class" than those of similar economic standing who wouldn't prioritize art or reading. Artists, for instance, Teachers living off a single income. And yes, there's definitely an element of classism in that.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

book ownership is definitely a luxury.. but often one so tied up in classism that it is interesting to see that listed, but not... lets say a color tv. In theory 50 books could be far cheaper than even some used TVs.. which is why I wondered if it was completely tied to classism.

There is another aspect of social - not economic so much - class that isn't addressed in this meme, and certainly colors the book thing. People who don't have the money for a lot of luxuries may still own books, but I think we as a society do consider those folk of a different "class" than those of similar economic standing who wouldn't prioritize art or reading. Artists, for instance, Teachers living off a single income. And yes, there's definitely an element of classism in that.
And here is where I'm having the disconnect... to me anything other than looking at strict economics of the haves and have nots is classism. This I know has to be shaped by my poorer mother's side of the family wanting me to 'pass' as upper middle class, and using all the same arguments... that if I was 'well cultured' (in luxuries only usually afforded by the upper class) then I would 'pass' where as my father's side of the family full of college educated engineers did not have any books to speak of, enjoyed crass humor, and often debated such facts as 'bats are birds because they have wings.'

To me assigning any kind of acceptability to jobs because they are 'more noble' such as the artist over the garbage collector is entirely classist because society needs both of those jobs, without either society would collapse... so why is one more acceptable? Perhaps because it was more of an economic investment to be a teacher and 'take on' the vow of poverty via teaching rather than being poor and continuing to be poor.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it is the classism thing that speaks to wanting to hold onto property, even if it's just books?

When I moved the rest of my stuff from my ex's house, one of the moving guys just stood in my apartment staring at my wall of books. And he perused them for a while, and asked me what I'd thought of this book or that, or offered his opinion because he'd read them. And then he was quiet for a while. Finally, he just shook his head and said "man, looking at this makes me wanna start keepin' my books. normally I just read 'em and then give them to someone. I figure I read it, I don't need to read it again. But this- this is amazing."

He was articulate. He'd read some of the same books I had. But he was definitely of a lower socio-economic class than me, and it had just never occurred to him to *keep* books. Books were disposable.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

The book thing struck me too, because (though I would definitely say we were lower-middle and not poor) our keeping all those books around was a big part of how our house was more shabby and cluttered than my friends' houses (and people like us were not presented well on TV). I still see stacks and stacks of worn-out used paperbacks as a "negative class indicator" in some ways/some contexts.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing nicely bound books all on shelves looking clean (and also barely used) and thinking 'wow...so that is how well off people organize books.
My grandmother gave me her favorite book of Ibsen plays. It was missing a cover, and still had the price (written in pencil) from the used book store written on the inside. But she wrote her name on the book in pen. I jerry-rigged a cover out of cardboard.

And I don't want to sound as though books aren't a luxury...and having space to store 50 of them definitely is... but I can't help but assume that it was included on this survey because of classist-cultural ties.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, books are a wonderful luxury, but interestingly one that is often not valued in the same was as, say, having a TV in your room. (Which in retrospect I'm really glad I never had.) It's such a convoluted subject!

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

I've started pondering all the unchecked luxuries... tvs, but things like new mattresses, and new clothes, and milk that isn't powdered ;)

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

memes like this are of necessity oversimplified. yeah. and the book part of it seems to hint at the ways that class is not just an up/down 2-dimensional "ladder" but has a lot of complicated branchings (as does keryx's comment about the performing arts vs. the "museum" arts)... I would also love to see something about how much debt people's families were in...

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

also the art trainings... some peoples schools had that for free (hell, I was in an arts program that they offered in my elementary school that was started up because our school was so poor)

parental debt is so interesting...

[ellebeowe.livejournal.com]

I think that books are totally an indicator of class. We never had books in my house, my parents didn't and still don't read. They also couldn't help me past 3rd grade on most of my homework assignments, not that they were ever home to help. I read a TON when I was in Elem and middle school and then not at all when I was in highschool (drugs and partying took up way way too much time). But, it was totally library books.

Although, I have a lot of books now, but I am well, probably considered poor/ish/er by most. But I value books more then anything else, I don't own a TV or a fancy car. Interesting study!