Serious question: Why are people afraid to admit privilege?
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Anonymous
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I am shocked by how many people are upset of the SAT adversity score. They do not want to admit the privileges that their children having growing up in a nice school district, safe school, etc. These are all great things! Everyone wants these things for their kids but sadly, many kids do not have access to these resources. Why are people so afraid to own that privilege and be proud of it while also working toward the same future for other kids? What are you afraid of? Honestly if you kid doesn't get into HPY and goes to say, UVA- what do you think will happen? Do you really think their future is lost? Are you afraid they will end up on the streets?
Seriously please help me understand... |
Anonymous
| They don't think they are successful because of privilege. They think they are successful because they are smart and made all the right choices, thus they are OWED good things. |
Anonymous
If that is true then why would it matter what school the person went to? They would just be smart anywhere and kill the SAT anywhere.. why invest in SAT courses, schools, nice lawns so heavily for something predetermined? |
Anonymous
Exactly. Everyone who gets to a certain point thinks that they achieved with hard work, smarts, and perseverance. We can't wrap our heads around the fact that just because we face some obstacles and failures that we understand what everyone else faces. Even if we recognize that those without privilege have many more obstacles. It's a strange bit of human nature and requires effort to overcome, IMHO. |
Anonymous
| My husband is an outlier in this regard - and I appreciate that. He’s tall, white, handsome, grew up UMC in a tony Boston suburb, superb education (Nobles, GW, Hopkins). He was given a winning hand at birth, and talks about his luck in life. Yes, he works hard, but acknowledges that his success comes mostly from his circumstances and peer group growing up. |
Anonymous
| Fck off. I worked for my "privilege". My parents were the first in my family to go to college. I resent this being counted against my kids for purely political reasons. |
Anonymous
Case in point 
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Anonymous
Well, let's turn it around and look at it another way. Would it be the end of the world if "not enough" underprivileged (meaning, black and Hispanic, because that's what this is "adversity score" nonsense really all about) kids didn't get into HYP and had to go to George Mason instead? NO. What if they went to vocational school instead? Would their future be lost? NO. But this is obviously an unacceptable outcome to the Left, or they wouldn't be exerting ourselves mightily to take race into account without taking race into account. |
Anonymous
It is a case in point of me not admitting privilege because my family did not have "privilege" handed to it, we had to work for it. So fck you and your eye rolling too. |
Anonymous
You really don’t get it apparently. I’m a lawyer in biglaw. No one in the building works harder than the janitorial staff. And many of them have second and third jobs. Lots of people work hard. But their hard work doesn’t help their kids like mine does. |
Anonymous
Being white is a privilege. Appearing white, as I do, though I am Latina, is also a privilege. Ask me how I know. |
Anonymous
I don’t agree with this person but there is a subset of people in this person’s position (who would have benefited from this adversity score had it existed then but “made it” without it, though possibly with other privileges they aren’t acknowledging) that are in a different position than people who have no experience with adversity. Again, I don’t agree at all with pp but it’s not quite the same as someone born with a silver spoon arguing against it. |
Anonymous
Because they don't want their kids to just have a good life, they want their kids to have it all. They want everything for their kids and don't care if that means other kids get little of nothing. |
Anonymous
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I had to look up what is the SAT adversity score.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adversity-score-sat-exam-college-board-calculate-students-admissions-college-wall-street-journal/ I don't doubt privilege, but I think assigning a score rubs me the wrong way since I think there are all kinds of different person circumstances that can't be quantified. College admissions counselors know the schools in their area. I think they can eyeball it enough on their own without a score. |
Anonymous
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There is also privilege in being unprivileged. We should acknowledge that as well.
Neither of my parents went to college. One parent only has an 8th grade education. I was embarrassed by this fact until my high school guidance counselor showed me how it would be a good thing and work to my advantage. She told me that colleges loved someone like me who'd persevered through all the challenges and still managed to be a 4.0 student. I didn't really trust her 100% until I took the PSATs. I scored a 1540 and colleges started bombarding me with calls and invites to tour their campuses. I got a 1570 on my SATs and the recruiting intensified. With the help of my guidance counselor, I was able to visit most schools for free by utilizing their financial aid departments. There's no way my parents could afford trips like that for me to take tours. The fact that I had under-educated, blue collar parents worked to my advantage and helped me get into an Ivy. Yes, I had excellent grades and test scores, but without the guidance and knowledge of my counselor, I would have ignored all of those offers for tours and never have applied to any Ivy league schools. Before that I was 100% planning on attending George Mason so I could live at home and save money that way. That's still privilege, IMO. |