Privilege exercise

[Anonymous]

So it's pretty apparent that all this focus on "privilege" in the last few years have only resulted in even more divisions.

[Anonymous]

Sorry that happened. There was a similar response from the kids that were at the back in this video https://youtu.be/4K5fbQ1-zps
Two problems. If done it should be for self reflection and not announced and don't bring race into it. I would be in the front if I were in this video and I'm AA. I'm not saying I'm not pre judged as an AA, but I am privileged.

[Anonymous]

What a stupid, stupid idea.

Having grown up very "unprivileged" this idiotic check your privilege movement has got to stop.

It benefit no one.

Not the people blessed with material or social status.

Not those who are working their way up from unfortunate circumstances.

It is a horrible back slide from all the progress we have made with civil rights.

The idiocy and stupidity needs to stop before we destroy a generation of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So it's pretty apparent that all this focus on "privilege" in the last few years have only resulted in even more divisions.

Yes.

The dumbasses pushing this have taken the generation of kids who were raised to be accepting and open to everyone and taught them that we really do not have any shared goals and we all actually hate one another.

[Anonymous]

My children attend a public school that is both affluent and diverse. There is a low grumble about how those high achievers at the school who are not white are held up on pedestals by the admins, receive 90% of the awards, and get into elite colleges with significantly lower grades and test scores than their white classmates. These students are just as wealthy as their white classmates, have highly educated parents and have had the same access to tutors and other enrichment, plus access to free summer programs at elite colleges and fully paid fly-in visits to colleges diversity recruitment weekends.

I understand this is a unique situation, but whenever anything is based exclusively on skin color, racial division in this country increases.

[Anonymous]

5. I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.

I'm pretty aware of this one. As a guy, I do swear, sometimes dress like a bum, sometimes barely shave my face, and realize I couldn't pull that off so well if I were black.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is a part of a club and last night they did something called a privilege rally where they had a list of things like “I have never been a religious minority” “I have never wondered where my next meal will come from” “my parents are still married.” There were 75 items on the list and kids had to check off each item as it applied to them and then tally them up and place their number on a board. All the other kids had numbers in the 60s and 70s, my daughter had a number in the 30s.

She felt extremely isolated, and while I have to imagine some of this is sort of a “no one is staring at you you’re just self conscious” situation she says she felt like everyone was looking at her and she doesn’t want to go back.

Suggestions on how to handle this?

Perhaps a conversation with the leader of the exercise at the club, where you say that making children who have less privilege feel conspicuous for having less privilege is presumably counter-productive to the intended point of the exercise, so next time please don't ask the kids to post the numbers publicly.

I believe with that exercise, the lower your score, the more privileged you are. So, OP's daughter is realizing this now relative to the experience of her peers, and this is making her uncomfortable. Which is sort of the point of the exercise and the group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Activities like this just make me angry. My teen had to do one at school and came home so confused because they kept talking about white privelige and so many of the things didn’t apply to him, even though he’s white. It’s a difficult conversation to have with your kid when he’s made to feel embarrassed that he’s white and further embarrassed that he’s not coming from storybook circumstances.

It's a difficult conversation, yes. His discomfort is at being confronted with the privilege he never considered he had, even though he has all of it. It's important to overcome that instinct to internalize and say, "Who? Me? I'm not a bad person! How dare you!" and come to terms with what privilege actually means. Your language -- "he's made to feel embarrassed" is troubling. He isn't a victim. And it's incumbent upon you to reinforce that. He needs to listen more, drop his defenses, and not view a discussion about the zeitgeist as some sort of personal attack. And if he has moments where he feels like his input is not valued or that his station in life is being attacked, consider that a lesson in how other members of other races and ethnicities feel frequently in our society.

[Anonymous]

White privilege is racist, like calling you a cracker, it should be banned

[Anonymous]

Sympathy to your DD but good for her for speaking up to advisor. The disadvantages for some people and privilege for others is real. But so often these exercises are done so badly. Been to horrible ones at work that had exactly the results your DD experienced. The people with the least were shamed. Unintentionally but that was the result. I now refuse to participate in them and walk out even though I believe strongly in the reality they are intended to expose, there’s too little sensitivity to the people in the group. I.e. victims of sexual predators do not want to take a step forward just because some self-righteous bafoon and paid consultant said this was a safe space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children attend a public school that is both affluent and diverse. There is a low grumble about how those high achievers at the school who are not white are held up on pedestals by the admins, receive 90% of the awards, and get into elite colleges with significantly lower grades and test scores than their white classmates. These students are just as wealthy as their white classmates, have highly educated parents and have had the same access to tutors and other enrichment, plus access to free summer programs at elite colleges and fully paid fly-in visits to colleges diversity recruitment weekends.

I understand this is a unique situation, but whenever anything is based exclusively on skin color, racial division in this country increases.

It’s not at all unique. It’s absolutely the way it goes now. Women and people of color are the new privileged, at least in academic situations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Activities like this just make me angry. My teen had to do one at school and came home so confused because they kept talking about white privelige and so many of the things didn’t apply to him, even though he’s white. It’s a difficult conversation to have with your kid when he’s made to feel embarrassed that he’s white and further embarrassed that he’s not coming from storybook circumstances.

It's a difficult conversation, yes. His discomfort is at being confronted with the privilege he never considered he had, even though he has all of it. It's important to overcome that instinct to internalize and say, "Who? Me? I'm not a bad person! How dare you!" and come to terms with what privilege actually means. Your language -- "he's made to feel embarrassed" is troubling. He isn't a victim. And it's incumbent upon you to reinforce that. He needs to listen more, drop his defenses, and not view a discussion about the zeitgeist as some sort of personal attack. And if he has moments where he feels like his input is not valued or that his station in life is being attacked, consider that a lesson in how other members of other races and ethnicities feel frequently in our society.

No, he needs to stand up to these people and say “screw you.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ouch, probably not very well thought out exercise. Someone probably saw that video and thought we'll make the privileged kids realize their privilege - failing to see that it would be at the expense of the underprivileged. Another privilege of the privileged.

This is a good point. At my DD's elementary school each year there was a school-wide science project where each kid had to construct a way to drop a raw egg off the roof of the school without it breaking. I was on food stamps all through DD's elementary school years. There were times I couldn't afford to pay for the train to get her to school. Each year I had to tell her teacher ahead of time that DD would not be contributing an egg - that we could not afford to waste protein that way. And by 2nd grade DD was aware enough of the waste that she was uncomfortable watching so much viable food go uneaten that she didn't want to participate.

That was me as a child too. Couldn’t do homework counting commercial minutes (no tv). Wasn’t comfortable with the experiment about rotting fruit (several whole, large pieces, and we all watched them rot away) or the sedimentary rock experiment (7!!! different colors of bread, squished flat under kids’ books in their desks). We never contributed food for experiments, and I could only contribute food to class parties when we were allowed to bring something that wasn’t closed. Very isolating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Well, what did you expect from a club?

Choose wisely, next time.

This has to be sarcasm, right? OP didn’t even mention what type of club it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry that happened. There was a similar response from the kids that were at the back in this video https://youtu.be/4K5fbQ1-zps
Two problems. If done it should be for self reflection and not announced and don't bring race into it. I would be in the front if I were in this video and I'm AA. I'm not saying I'm not pre judged as an AA, but I am privileged.

Exactly. I’m white and I would have been on the back line.