The Privilege Meme

There's a privilege meme circulating the blogosphere. Its initial source: the work of doctoral students of Dr Will Barratt at Indiana State University.

The original authors of this exercise are Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, and Stacy Ploskonka at Indiana State University. If you participate, they ask that you acknowledge their copyright. Hereby acknowledged! ©

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Bold the true statements. You can explain further if you wish.

1. Father went to college.
2. Father finished college.
My father went to university after he began working, so he was studying part-time as a mature age student.

3. Mother went to college.
4. Mother finished college.
My mother went to an excellent high school and then won a full scholarship to train as a teacher, but my grandfather wouldn't sign the bond that committed to repayment of the scholarship should she fail to complete the degree. So she couldn't take it. Ironically (sadly, since I think she would have made a fabulous teacher) there was little likelihood of her failing. When, later on, she studied pattern making and fashion at a technical college she topped her year: not that she ever told anyone, I discovered this as a teenager when I found the prize books they had awarded her.

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.
I was a voracious reader and my memory is of the house being full of books of all types – I could read anything I wanted to. Also – important – we didn't have a television until I was about 14. That was a deliberate choice on the part of my parents.

9. Were read children’s books by a parent.
One of my fondest memories is of my dad reading me Treasure Island and then Kidnapped. But as soon as I could I preferred to read for myself.

10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.
So in all that time when I wasn't watching television… I learned ballet (later adding in other types of dance), drama, piano and flute, and I was in swim squad. I am hugely grateful to my parents for making these kinds of extra-curricular activities a priority in my life.

12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
I'm not sure. I would say I dress in a way that's unremarkable for someone of my age who has a creative office job in the arts. For an Australian I have a relatively neutral speech style (I can put on the "ocker" accent, but only for fun). As for what I talk about…I'm of an intellectual bent although not an academic by "trade", some aspects of pop culture have bypassed me and are simply a distant source of bemusement, I read a lot, I'd rather own a piano than a television… In all? I don't think I could say that my "type" is ever portrayed in a particularly negative fashion. Perhaps we're the subject of gentle mockery sometimes? And a certain envy other times? But basically, positive.

13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
Oh no – my mother was violently anti-credit. She wouldn't even let me get an ATM card for my school savings account when they introduced that technology, so I had to stick with a passbook. Soooo daggy! I was mortified. (I got my first credit card when I got my first full-time salaried job. I was 23.)

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.
For my undergraduate degree, yes. But this was in Australia, so the American experience of fiendishly high tuition fees for university didn't apply. And I lived at home, since the away-from-home college culture isn't particularly widespread in Australia either.

16. Went to a private high school.
But I went to a government selective school. Which meant I enjoyed the core benefits of a private school (i.e. motivated, high achieving peers and a parent body that was supportive of learning and education generally) with none of the costs.

17. Went to summer camp.
Music camps during summer, yes. But these are not at all the same animal as "summer camp", I suspect.

18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
Didn't need one. Not sure what would have happened if I had needed one. Somehow I don't think I would have had a private tutor; perhaps my parents would have coached me a little.

19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
Well, my purchased clothing was all new, but as the youngest of three I inevitably wore some hand-me-downs (including some that were much-admired and long-awaited!). However, more significantly, much of my clothing was made at home (see comment for point 3 above). This meant I was able to have enough/plenty of interesting clothing without my parents having to spend a fortune. Oh, and my maternal grandfather was a shoemaker, so under no circumstances would my mother have ever allowed me to wear pre-worn shoes. Very bad for the feet.

21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
No. I never got around to learning to drive. They did, however, help me buy my first really good flute, which I wanted far more than a car.

22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
As another has said: Not in the sense meant.

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.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
Ha! No way would that have happened. Indeed, we didn't even have a phone installed until I was about 9 and my big sisters were travelling overseas for the first time. This meme was developed by some very young students, I suspect!

27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.
Ha! again. See comments for point 8 and for point 26.

29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college.
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
Yes. My older sisters purchased an interstate holiday for my parents as an anniversary present when I was about 11. My parents insisted on taking me too. (The whole idea was that I could stay at home and have a good time with my sisters – no such luck!)

31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.
I think, collectively, we couldn't have imagined anything more boring! Could we have afforded such a holiday? – my guess is no, because the family's financial priorities were elsewhere.

33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
All the time. My favourite weekend adventure was to visit the natural history museum. Loved that place. Made special friends with the stuffed camel. Art galleries not so much. But lots of theatre and ballet, and concerts, and a little opera. (I'm mentioning the performing arts activities here because, surprisingly, there is no point of this type elsewhere in this meme.) Mainly my mother did the taking.

34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
Heating wasn't such an issue (we're talking about a mild climate), but I was brought up to turn lights off and would be chastised if I had the oil heater on too hot for too long in winter. So I was aware that such things cost money and that money was not to be wasted – there was no talk of the environment in those years, of course.
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If this meme were used in its original form for a classroom or other group activity, "bolding" would be replaced by stepping forward from a common starting point. So I would have taken 17 steps forward, i.e. half way.

That said, I've long believed that I enjoyed an extremely privileged childhood and have been grateful for that. Some of these privileges I understood and appreciated at the time. Others may have irked, especially in my younger years, because I wasn't living quite the same life as my peers (few others wore "bespoke" clothes, everyone else had a television, no one else in my class was taken to see Macbeth or Rigoletto, and until I went to high school (aged 11) I had few friends who pursued as many extra-curricular activities as I did). But in the long run, all those things have shaped who I am and have given me interests and opportunities and pleasures that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

So thanks mum and dad! I know we didn't eat out at restaurants (not once do I recall doing that) and we didn't go to Disneyland (this was in the days when the Aussie dollar was way stronger than the American – Disneyland holidays were quite common even in my lower middle class suburb). I know we didn't get around in a flashy car. I also know that instead of spending on these material (they would have said "wasteful") things, my parents invested a lot of time and money in my sisters and me and in our all-round education. I think the term the academics throw at this is "cultural capital". So no trust fund for me – but loads of cultural capital.

To that end, some of the points in this meme amused me. Clearly leaving them unbolded was intended to be a signal for lack of privilege, but in my case I would consider them the opposite. For example, I would never regard having a television in my room during high school as a sign of privilege, mainly because I recognise that not having a television at all is part of what I'm so grateful for. It's one reason I read so voraciously and acquired a remarkable general knowledge at a young age. It contributed, I am certain, to my academic success. How on earth could have a television (in my room, no less) have been a privilege? Except, perhaps, to the extent that it's a marker of affluence if a family purchases multiple televisions.

But there's the rub. I don't equate affluence or overt displays of affluence with "privilege" in the richer sense.

My family was not, I think, affluent. But we never felt in want of anything. My parents (children of the 1930s) managed their money carefully, invested prudently, bought for quality and longevity rather than quantity, and were frugal in some areas so they could be generous in the areas that were important to them. All values that they passed on to their children. They were resourceful, and used their wonderful creative and practical abilities (mum's design and sewing skills; dad's marvellous woodworking skills) to ensure that we could have lovely things around us for the cost of the raw materials. Or less: one of my favourite chairs, I still have it, was rescued from someone else's household throw-out and refinished by my dad. So while on a traditional socio-economic scale I'm not sure we'd rank as especially privileged, I know I am in many ways tremendously privileged. And I'm humbled by that.

FOOTNOTE: I discovered this meme here, via NaNoBloMo; there's an interesting post about its viral journey here.