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libertango) wrote2008-01-04 01:25 am
libertango) wrote2008-01-04 01:25 am
Entry tags:
Privilege meme -- answers
In a goose/gander way...
This is based on the original paper (NB: MS Word .DOC format), by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Indiana State University. So the questions are slightly different from what's been floating on LJ.
Note that this was originally a college class exercise, where if one of the questions below applied to you, you were to take a step forward, while being able to see your classmates.
Bold are ones that apply to me. Italics are ones that don't. Regular is my commentary.
*^*^*^*^*
"When you were in college:
If your father went to college
If your father finished college
Harvard, BA; Suffolk, MA. However, that was after dropping out of ninth grade, because grandpa believed all that education stuff made you a "faggot." It was also through extension school at Harvard, which was relatively rare at the time. The picture of his graduating class has perhaps 30. Which leads to another interesting thing -- the colleges in Boston at the time pretty much held graduations in the same week. Because dad had finished the requirements for his BA, Suffolk let him in to do his MA. Due to timing, he received his MA earlier in the week than his Harvard BA. This means that picture I mentioned has dad there in his blue master's cape, all six feet and 360 lbs of him, among the normal sized black-robed BA recipients.
If your mother went to college
If your mother finished college
Same schools/degrees as dad.
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
If you were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
If you had a computer at home
If you had your own computer at home
I would say I was a squidge too young for this, but one or two of the guys at high school had their own computers. Apple II, Commodore PET, that sort of vintage.
If you had more than 50 books at home
If you had more than 500 books at home
If were read children's books by a parent
If you ever had lessons of any kind
If you had more than two kinds of lessons
No, although mom did buy a piano.
If the people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
It depends. The geeky ones have gone from scorn, to comic relief, to (mostly) just folks. The professorial ones are rare enough to define "small sample size."
If you had a credit card with your name on it
Security Pacific gave me a VISA while I was still in college.
If you have less than $5000 in student loans
I don't think it was over $5000. It was about $70/month for ten years afterward to repay, and while I could probably backward calc the amortization... not just now.
If you have no student loans
If you went to a private high school
Midland School, class of 1981. "Bohemian Prep," as The Preppy Handbook would say. 2600 acres of California ranch country, 80 students. Horses, cattle, food gardens. Every student had a job. Dorm cabins and classrooms were generally wood heated, as were the water heaters for showers. So, "prep," yes, but not the typical experience that implies.
If you went to summer camp
YMCA camp, one summer back in Boston. Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA) (as it then was) for two summers (singing in choir).
If you had a private tutor
If you have been to Europe
We went to the UK and France when I had just turned 7, about six months before dad died. Mind you, I didn't return to Europe until a trip to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
akirlu's family in Sweden, and not to the UK until accompanying her on her TAFF trip. So a gap of almost 30 years.
If your family vacations involved staying at hotels
Yes, for various values of "hotels." B&Bs in the UK; a small household hotel on Martha's Vineyard when I was kid; and my parents helped run a summer resort on Cape Cod during those years, too.
If all of your clothing has been new and bought at the mall
If your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
If there was original art in your house
Most people have been interpreting this to include home made art. I suspect (though I haven't asked) that it was meant as gallery originals. As may be -- as I think about it, mom bought an art-fair level painting or two.
If you had a phone in your room
If you lived in a single family house
Depends on when. We moved a great deal when I was a kid -- the numbers I remember are 17 times by the time I was 11. So... apartments, single detached, single attached, row houses, you name it.
If your parent own their own house or apartment
If you had your own room
If you participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Study guides, yes. Arguably, all of Midland is a prep course. But not something like Kaplan, or Princeton Review, or their ilk.
If you had your own cell phone in High School
If you had your own TV in your room in High School
As mentioned, I was class of 1981, so I don't think you would have had coverage with a "car phone" (as they were called then), let alone it was entirely against the Midland ethos. No student was allowed a TV, as I recall. Faculty would open their home for socializing that might have included TV, but usually didn't, twice a week.
If you opened a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
If you have ever flown anywhere on a commercial airline
Actually, I flew very young. I vaguely remember looking over New York from a DC-3 as a young child, so mid-1960s.
If you ever went on a cruise with your family
Although my grandfather on my mother's side had apparently wanted to take me on a cross-country train trip. He died before that happened, though.
If your parents took you to museums and art galleries
If you were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family"
This is based on the original paper (NB: MS Word .DOC format), by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Indiana State University. So the questions are slightly different from what's been floating on LJ.
Note that this was originally a college class exercise, where if one of the questions below applied to you, you were to take a step forward, while being able to see your classmates.
Bold are ones that apply to me. Italics are ones that don't. Regular is my commentary.
*^*^*^*^*
"When you were in college:
If your father went to college
If your father finished college
Harvard, BA; Suffolk, MA. However, that was after dropping out of ninth grade, because grandpa believed all that education stuff made you a "faggot." It was also through extension school at Harvard, which was relatively rare at the time. The picture of his graduating class has perhaps 30. Which leads to another interesting thing -- the colleges in Boston at the time pretty much held graduations in the same week. Because dad had finished the requirements for his BA, Suffolk let him in to do his MA. Due to timing, he received his MA earlier in the week than his Harvard BA. This means that picture I mentioned has dad there in his blue master's cape, all six feet and 360 lbs of him, among the normal sized black-robed BA recipients.
If your mother went to college
If your mother finished college
Same schools/degrees as dad.
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
If you were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
If you had a computer at home
If you had your own computer at home
I would say I was a squidge too young for this, but one or two of the guys at high school had their own computers. Apple II, Commodore PET, that sort of vintage.
If you had more than 50 books at home
If you had more than 500 books at home
If were read children's books by a parent
If you ever had lessons of any kind
If you had more than two kinds of lessons
No, although mom did buy a piano.
If the people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
It depends. The geeky ones have gone from scorn, to comic relief, to (mostly) just folks. The professorial ones are rare enough to define "small sample size."
If you had a credit card with your name on it
Security Pacific gave me a VISA while I was still in college.
If you have less than $5000 in student loans
I don't think it was over $5000. It was about $70/month for ten years afterward to repay, and while I could probably backward calc the amortization... not just now.
If you have no student loans
If you went to a private high school
Midland School, class of 1981. "Bohemian Prep," as The Preppy Handbook would say. 2600 acres of California ranch country, 80 students. Horses, cattle, food gardens. Every student had a job. Dorm cabins and classrooms were generally wood heated, as were the water heaters for showers. So, "prep," yes, but not the typical experience that implies.
If you went to summer camp
YMCA camp, one summer back in Boston. Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA) (as it then was) for two summers (singing in choir).
If you had a private tutor
If you have been to Europe
We went to the UK and France when I had just turned 7, about six months before dad died. Mind you, I didn't return to Europe until a trip to see
akirlu's family in Sweden, and not to the UK until accompanying her on her TAFF trip. So a gap of almost 30 years.If your family vacations involved staying at hotels
Yes, for various values of "hotels." B&Bs in the UK; a small household hotel on Martha's Vineyard when I was kid; and my parents helped run a summer resort on Cape Cod during those years, too.
If all of your clothing has been new and bought at the mall
If your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
If there was original art in your house
Most people have been interpreting this to include home made art. I suspect (though I haven't asked) that it was meant as gallery originals. As may be -- as I think about it, mom bought an art-fair level painting or two.
If you had a phone in your room
If you lived in a single family house
Depends on when. We moved a great deal when I was a kid -- the numbers I remember are 17 times by the time I was 11. So... apartments, single detached, single attached, row houses, you name it.
If your parent own their own house or apartment
If you had your own room
If you participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Study guides, yes. Arguably, all of Midland is a prep course. But not something like Kaplan, or Princeton Review, or their ilk.
If you had your own cell phone in High School
If you had your own TV in your room in High School
As mentioned, I was class of 1981, so I don't think you would have had coverage with a "car phone" (as they were called then), let alone it was entirely against the Midland ethos. No student was allowed a TV, as I recall. Faculty would open their home for socializing that might have included TV, but usually didn't, twice a week.
If you opened a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
If you have ever flown anywhere on a commercial airline
Actually, I flew very young. I vaguely remember looking over New York from a DC-3 as a young child, so mid-1960s.
If you ever went on a cruise with your family
Although my grandfather on my mother's side had apparently wanted to take me on a cross-country train trip. He died before that happened, though.
If your parents took you to museums and art galleries
If you were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family"