Winfrey has a dad, not raised by single mom. Her parents were probably divorced.
I never stated or questioned that some start further back. I was trying to point out some issues with the questions. I believe everyone could take a step back on some questions, such as the tv question. With shows like the Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park, everyone could take a step back. Also there weren’t any questions which acknowledged a woman’s privilege or privilege due to a physical characteristic which is why I brought up the height question.
Some questions needed more clarification. The family vacation wasn’t clear. My family took a vacation to see my grandmother or other relatives but we never took a vacation to see a specific tourist spot or attraction.
for the record at the end I was one step back after 8 steps back and 7 forward. The steps forward were due to my living in a metro area and able to take advantage of the programs offered such as free days for the zoo or museum for any city resident. Even poor kids can go to summer camp if you join a Boys club or similar program.
@GMTplus7 You are misunderstanding the intent of the survey. If Oprah had a child, yes, her child would be enormously privileged, just as Trump’s children are. But Oprah herself was not privileged. And perhaps Trump’s parents weren’t either, I don’t really know.
The more obstacles you have to overcome, the harder it is to get into Wharton, the harder it is to start a business, etc. What on earth is controversial about this?
Trump didn’t get into Wharton right away. I think he was transferred from Fordham.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
~20 steps forward, and I’m a URM (hispanic) who will still get a boost in admissions to most colleges. Hmmmm I can’t tell you if that’s fair.
“The more obstacles you have to overcome, the harder it is to get into Wharton, the harder it is to start a business, etc. What on earth is controversial about this?”
So you have to go to an Ivy League school to be successful? Ah, I forgot, this is cc, and what school you have gone to is all important.
"Pretty darn parochial & condescending to assume people in the US who use other than english at home as their primary language, must be poor wetbacks.
I know plenty of 0.1% wealthy immigrants who use English as a second, third, fourth language."
I am with you, @GMTplus7 . Actually, I consider this to be a privilege to grow up in a household like that. Both of my kids are fluent in three languages, and leant the fourth language for several years. It would be utterly ridiculous to consider them underprivileged because of this.
Okay, Ivana Trump’s first language wasn’t English @dadoftwingirls, and Donald probably worked tons of nights and weekends. -2 for the Trump kids. They are going to be so far ahead in every other respect that it doesn’t matter. That’s why surveys have lots of questions, not just a few. There will always be some exceptions.
@MidwestDad3, why are you taking this so personal that I pointed out problems with the questions?
@busdriver11, no you don’t have to go to an Ivy League school to be successful. But privilege does help one get into an Ivy, and getting into an Ivy can provide you the opportunity to make connections that MAY help in your success.
49, you sound like a typical CC student with that comment.
@dadoftwingirls Not taking it personally. I just don’t agree that there are significant problems with the questions. There are 36 of them. One can nitpick over a few.
You take issue with the vacation question because, yes, you did go on a “vacation” to visit relatives but your family never took you to Disney World or wherever, so you didn’t really have a real vacation and you feel the survey didn’t capture what it was supposed to with regard to you on that question. First, it is only 3% of your answers and all surveys have a margin of error. Second, what your answer does show is that your parent was able to take time off of work. Your parent was able to afford the cost of transporting your family to see relatives. You had access to a wider family support network. And you had experience visiting an area of thecountry different from that which you lived in. So I would argue that the question probably captured a lot of what it was hoping to with you.
Now suppose we take it out because it seems a bit ambiguous. By taking it out you miss all of the kids whose parents worked multiple jobs that did not allow for any time off. You miss the families who perhaps had time off, but were too impoverished to go anywhere. Or single parent families with many kids who logistically couldn’t do it, even if the time off and the money were there.
Over all, I think the survey does a reasonable job of showing what privilege consists of.
@drgoogle I’ll take that as a compliment! Thank you!
Interesting that some people saw the survey as “screaming” victimhood, and think it assumes that privilege/under-privilege is “permanently ingrained”, because I didn’t see it that way. As I posted earlier, I believe privilege can be very situational, and thereby, extremely fluid. It very much depends upon the nature of the privilege. Why is it so off-putting for some people to acknowledge that having certain privileges can give one a leg up?
For instance, if you have two perfectly functional legs, and need to enter a building (a library, say) that has no wheelchair accessibility, you’ll probably face no physical impediments in doing so, and never give it a second thought. That’s privilege. The wheelchair bound individual won’t necessarily assume he can’t access the building, but will be well aware of how much harder he’ll have to work to get inside than the guy who just walked in on two good legs. If you are able bodied, and choose to accuse the person in the wheelchair of having “victim” mentality, it shows a decided lack of awareness of your privilege in that specific area. And if you think the lack of handicapped accessibility is a minor impediment that the wheelchair bound should just use a bit of grit and determination to overcome, it shows a pretty breath-taking level of callous disregard on your part.
Conversely, the same person who is disadvantaged in one situation, may be decidedly privileged in another. Take the person in the wheelchair for instance. Suppose he is educationally privileged? Suppose the able bodied person who walked in easily is illiterate, or the library houses a collection written in a language they can’t read or understand? If you’ve ever been in a country where people are speaking a language you can’t speak or understand, you know what it’s like to have your language privilege card temporarily suspended. Do you feel like “a victim”? Does it make sense for the people in that country to accuse you of “victim mentality”? Of course not. But, it would be patently ignorant for the native speakers to think they aren’t privileged with ease of communication over one who is looking from person to person with an expression of total confusion.
Some kinds of privilege have greater overall impact upon one’s general chances of succeeding, at least in the ways by which the world usually judges success. It’s just a fact. But it doesn’t mean privilege precludes hardships and adversities, because life can genuinely suck from time to time, and no one is immune from headaches and heartaches. But I think it’s good from time to time for all of us to look around and appreciate the ways in which we are privileged, and acknowledge that people lacking in those areas may have a much harder row to hoe in areas in which life has greased the skids for us. (Sorry for the mixed metaphor :">)
Of course there are people who started from further back-- there’s no dispute in that.
What’s disputed is that some here are saying that the previously disadvantaged people who finally made it, are STILL not privileged-- that these newly successful people are permanent victims. That oprah winfrey’s kids are privileged, but oprah herself is not. That’s BS.
Wow, I must have missed that… 
Can you point me to posts in which people said that?
Easy there, GMT, don’t want to go back in that cage now. 
Really though, underprivileged kids who become successful later in life are privileged. One could say they were underprivileged when they were young, but they cannot say that they’re still underprivileged because of what happened to them decades ago.
@poetsheart #55
This is what @MidwestDad3 wrote:
He also argues that oprah is not as privileged as trump. @-)
<<world’s tiniest=“” violin=“” playing…=“”>></world’s>
He said Oprah was not as privileged as Trump, and this is true. Oprah’s upbringing was in no way as economically, or socially privileged as Trump’s. There’s not much room to dispute that. I’m sure Oprah does not think of herself as being disadvantaged, especially given her obvious understanding of just how much power and influence she wields. She has experienced a few instances of racial discrimination, even after having achieved a fair amount of fame and fortune, something I’m guessing The Donald has never faced. But Trump, poor thing, has to contend with people laughing at his ridiculous hair behind his back. ;))
“If your parents worked nights and weekends to support your family, take one step backward.
What difference does this make if my parents are I are upper income today?”
I assume this was meant to get at a stereotypical low income family where the parents heroically worked at low-end jobs (overnight as a janitor at the hospital or waitress at the all night diner) but it’s a poorly worded question. It could also include the working mother who deliberately takes the night shift job because she doesn’t wish to use daycare and her husband will be with the kids. It could include the realtor who shows houses on weekends. It could include the physician who is on call or the business professional who travels internationally - who are not at all poor. And it just also includes people who are passionate about their jobs and don’t just have a 9 to 5 mentality - which is a positive to model for a child, not a negative.
I find the assumptions that if you are white, well to do, heterosexual, born here, and not the product of “obvious” dysfunction (abuse, alcoholism, etc) that you e had a charmed life to be obnoxious. We all have our crosses to bear in life and being white and well to do doesn’t excuse you from them.