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How much class privilege do you have?

  
  

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Saturn's nod
06:31 / 06.11.07
A meme on the Quaker blogs this week starting at Jeanne's is the Social Class scoring game. It was developed, as she explains, by Minnette Huck, Meagan Cahill, Stacy Ploskonka, Drew Lurker, Angie Carlen and Will Barratt for staff development at Illinois State University to raise awareness of class on U.S. college campuses. The original 'Take a step forward' game is linked from Will Barratt's page.

I like it because it allows at least a very rough kind of quantification for starting some conversations about what class means. I find 'class' quite confusing - which might be a class signifier itself I suppose.


Here's the game:

Count up how many of the statements below apply to you. If we were playing this in a room, you would take that many steps forward. It's meant to illustrate how much the advantages given to kids affect how those kids get ahead when they are grown-ups.

Father went to college

Father finished college

Mother went to college

Mother finished college

Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.

Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers

Had more than 50 books in your childhood home

Had more than 500 books in your childhood home

Were read children's books by a parent

Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18

Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18

The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively

Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18

Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs* (modified from Barratt and colleagues' version)

Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs* (modified from Barratt and colleagues' version)

Went to a private high school

Went to summer camp

Had a private tutor before you turned 18

Family vacations involved staying at hotels

Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18

Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down
from them

There was original art in your house when you were a child

Had a phone in your room before you turned 18

You and your family lived in a single family house

Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home

You had your own room as a child

Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course

Had your own TV in your room in High School

Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College

Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16

Went on a cruise with your family

Went on more than one cruise with your family

Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up

You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family



How do you score? Does that agree with your previous ideas about class and your upbringing?

It's obviously designed around U.S. class signifiers - how well do you think it translates to the UK and elsewhere? What would you add if you could add a question?
 
 
Saturn's nod
06:42 / 06.11.07
I get twelve steps of advantage: mostly from questions to do with books, lessons, and museums. My folks hadn't completed much formal education until well after I'd left home, but they read a lot and visited museums, and my brother and I got tuition with musical instruments, dancing, and horses, when we were kids.
 
 
Quantum
07:06 / 06.11.07
I don't think it translates across the Atlantic too well- Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them is a class signifier? What about Had a private tutor before you turned 18 or Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College, they must be more common in the US than UK.
I think I got 8, but I've no idea what that means.
 
 
This Sunday
07:13 / 06.11.07
I got about seven, being generous (my mother didn't complete college or become a prof until after I was not under her roof; is there a difference between purchased original art and gifted? Do you gets points in one direction or another if you paid your own private school tuition with work?), which made me kinda happy. Yay, I has privilege! (Does anybody know the LOLcat grammar for that?)

There's some real flaws in the ordering/scaling of that, though, yeah? I never had a private tutor, but I had Peter L Wilson critique stuff for me, when I was a kid, and Ginsberg tell me not to rewrite but insist I was right the first time. That ought to give me a leg up on whatever unpublished undergrad-X could have been hired to impart good grammar on me at twelve, right? 'Did you always have hot running water in the home?' ought to be somewhere on the scale of significance; 'Did you append a clause to your nationality?'
 
 
Papess
07:14 / 06.11.07
(Yeah, it is 4am here. I can't sleep.)

I got 8 as well. "Having a phone line in your room" indicates an era to me. An era that I was not a part of, I might add.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
07:21 / 06.11.07
That ought to give me a leg up on whatever unpublished undergrad-X could have been hired to impart good grammar on me at twelve, right?

Wrong. So, so wrong.
 
 
This Sunday
07:51 / 06.11.07
So, so wrong.

Meant to be, really. Especially considering the state of the comment.

What I clearly needed, was a tutor in humor.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
07:58 / 06.11.07
Knackers. You mean you didn't actually have Ginsberg giving you creative writing lessons, in a sitting-on-the-adjoining-desk sort of a way? I'm a bit crushed, and clearly far too credulous.
 
 
This Sunday
08:04 / 06.11.07
No, I did. Naropa, some small time ago. Just don't think it helped much of anything other than (a) my inability to take Howl seriously, and (b) my reflex connection of Gisnberg to Grover from Sesame Street. My ability to turn that into a reasonably funny joke has been impaired by sake, to where I may apologise when sober.

Now, the fact that he taught me how to draw a cartoon frog? That was important.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:06 / 06.11.07
More seriously, though... I don't know - the car thing doesn't translate brilliantly, because children in the UK don't own cars - if we need the use of a car, we can take one from the side of the road where they are left for just such a purpose. The IRA/College fund stuff probably works better for young Britons nowadays, who have to pay for their own tuition, thhan back in my day. But much of this seems broadly relevant. It tends to equate books with privilege, which need not be the case, but then presumably the function of the test is to some degree to spark conversation about how class and privilege interrelate. For example, one often hears reportage on how plumbers now earn more than lawyers in London - does that mean that going to law school, or being encouraged to go to law school, or having an uncle in the law, is no longer an advantage? I'd probably say no - rather, it is a contentious exception pulled out to distract attention from the rule. However, it is an exception which seems to get a fair bit of coverage. Why is that?

I actually lost count of my privilege, which I suppose is also my privilege. I think I scored about eighteen, which means I really shouldn't be so profoundly chippy about poshos.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:14 / 06.11.07
Also, I am profoundly annoyed at the inability of Yahoo image search to come up with an image of Fort Neuropa. The quest continues.
 
 
Janean Patience
08:16 / 06.11.07
I scored high privilege too, which left me kind of shocked. Because we were poor, like hide-from-the-gasman poor, even if there were books. Perhaps I too should stop hating posh people, but it's so much fun...
 
 
This Sunday
08:16 / 06.11.07
I think Haus has a (a few) good point(s) there. Books = privilege only works in the sense of new books, or at one time or something. As my grandma used to say, you run out of food when you eat it, but you don't run out of books. This is truth. You only run out of unread books that happen to be on-hand. And it ignores the existence of libraries, anyway, which are - at least in the States, if not the eastern hemisphere - kind of important, if you're addicted to the page but can't afford that addiction.

Personal cars, phones, and IRAs of any state, all mean different things in different things in different areas, times, and circumstances.

And, while the test gave me a little 'Yay!' in private, if I'd been playing this with a group and somebody made it really further than me, I'd probably grumble about it. The game part seems designed hit everybody a little roughly and get a desire-to-dialogue going.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:18 / 06.11.07
Undergrad-X? Was he one of the Omega Gang?

More seriously, as well as the US-orientation (some of which I'm unclear on - does the word "lessons" mean something different there, like home-schooling?), there's some weird sudden doses of subjectivity or guesswork required: "Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers" - well, presumably most people would have to get their teachers to take this test and then compare notes? Unawareness of heating bills is also an odd one: I do remember a period in which my family lived out of one room because we couldn't afford to heat the whole house, but I never saw the figures, y'know?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:20 / 06.11.07
Proposed additional question would be in the words of Dizzee Rascal:

What you know about boilin' a kettle for a bath?
 
 
Mistoffelees
08:22 / 06.11.07
I got five. Unless "cruise" equals a normal holday (I thought they meant cruising around on an ocean liner), than I got seven.

It doesn´t really work for Germany. We have no High School or College. And I don´t know how I could answer that: "Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers". How would I know, if the teachers were as poor as me when they were children?

Also about the new clothes. My father bought really cheap stuff from Woolworth´s, and I got mocked a lot, so that question is not really working. Maybe it should be "Did your parents by you expensive/cool/brand clothes?".

And about lessons: is that apart from school? You could have swimming/piano/theatre lessons at school, too. You didn´t need to get a private teacher for that.

And things like summer camp and "college" can be paid by the government, if the parents don´t have the money.

And why would a child know about the cost of heating?
 
 
Quantum
08:33 / 06.11.07
From a different angle, though, I've been to Uni and have original art on the wall (my SO is an artist) and earn more than my folks did, so if I have children they will have more class privilege than me. Surely that's good, indicating social mobility, but it confuses me. Am I middle class now that I've got a degree? Will I always be working class because my dad was a bricky? Am I middle class because my stepdad is an architect? Did I suddenly switch over when my mum remarried?
 
 
Quantum
08:36 / 06.11.07
There should be a UK question about benefits, state support etc. "Did you get free school dinners" or something.
 
 
Janean Patience
08:39 / 06.11.07
Can't help the feeling that we're all a little piqued at being less gritty than we thought we were, though. Another suggested question:

Do you choose your internet message board based on the outstanding grammar, spelling and general level of literacy of most participants? Do misplaced apostrophes make you wince?
 
 
This Sunday
08:40 / 06.11.07
They've got meal programs at schools in the States, too. Breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, depending on state, school, need and such. Not terribly rare or anything.

It's a good one to have on there, in general.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:44 / 06.11.07
Did you grow up with holes in your zapatoes?

Books = privilege only works in the sense of new books, or at one time or something.

Well, hoom. There are certainly ways for poor people to get their hands on books, but I think one of the issues is that poverty and poor education limits the culture of reading, and also the ability to select books usefully - the technical manuals in my local library, for example, are always a chunk behind the curve, because they are not released to libraries until they are reaching obsolescence. Likewise, second-hand books limit access and choice, and there's a trade-off between money and time - if you don't have a spare afternoon to go burrowing, the utility of second-hand stores becomes more limited. Access to libraries is another issue - if you're working two jobs, the library system may be largely denied you, because it tends to be open during working hours, five or six days a week.
 
 
Janean Patience
08:44 / 06.11.07
Will I always be working class because my dad was a bricky? Am I middle class because my stepdad is an architect? Did I suddenly switch over when my mum remarried?

When my mum remarried, she chose a bricky whose previous wife was a barmaid. Have I switched down a class? But his son went to Oxford and his daughter's a doctor. Does that move me up?

S'all bullshit, innit. We never talk about class in England but we all think we know where we stand. Try having a conversation about it with your workmates and you'll soon find there's no certainty anywhere. IMHO.
 
 
Jack Vincennes
08:47 / 06.11.07
Were read children's books by a parent

Children's books as opposed to what kind of books? XP For Dummies? Blue Ocean Strategy? A Farewell To Arms?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:48 / 06.11.07
Note the sidestep here: there's an easy slip into questions about the taxonomy of class, rather than the possession of privilege. Is that significant?
 
 
Janean Patience
08:55 / 06.11.07
I hadn't noticed and I was one of the ones doing it. Privilege is more measurable, I suppose, and more useful in an academic environment for that reason. But is original art on the walls privilege?
 
 
Jack Vincennes
09:04 / 06.11.07
It's an indicator of how much money and / or spare time is available and how these are apportioned. It's not an indicator of privilege in itself but it indicates that one or both of the above are readily available, and where this is the case, there's generally a degree of privilege (cf Tannhauser's example of someone working two jobs and presumably lacking money to buy or time to create original art).
 
 
Janean Patience
09:07 / 06.11.07
And if you had a grandfather in the Ashington Group?
 
 
Ex
09:13 / 06.11.07
there's an easy slip into questions about the taxonomy of class, rather than the possession of privilege. Is that significant?

I was thinking of that, and specifically, how my parents used what privilege they had to ofset the amount of money they had by presenting as a higher class than we could logically afford. So money, class and privilege are kind of seperable elements, in my own childhood.
To unpack - we went to museums and art galleries (see list) because they were free. So on holiday (hotels? bugger that - camping all the way) we'd also go round factory tours and churches and free radio recordings rather than shows. All of which made for a very educational, middle-class kind of entertainment on the cheap.
And the kinds of community activity that were open to my parents and therefore to me were in a sense dependent on them presenting as - if not middle class, then a certain kind of nice, respectable family.

To give another example, I'd associate having a TV in my bedroom as a sign of not being middle-class - there's an initial small financial outlay, yes, but TV (for me in my youth) had inherently not-middle-class associations. In my family home, we always had to look in the Radio Times to see if there was anything worth watching, and ask the other family members if they wouldn't mind having the telly on. TV in bedroom = instant gratification by cheap means and not the done thing (I paraphrase and parody my parents). Like having chips every day - would have actually cost more than what my mother cooked, but wouldn't have been as 'classy'.
 
 
This Sunday
09:18 / 06.11.07
On the library thing, I meant kids having access, more than adults. Most schools, even if they have a shitty one, have one. And sometimes things are stocked in the hopes they won't get noticed and pulled off the shelf for the trash bin. Some of the first Moorcock, Melville, and Byron I ever read were from the school library in Kyle, South Dakota. Not to mention what may have been the first proper physics text book I ever looked at (college text - I had no idea what it meant more than half the time, but loved the sound of it and yes, it did help later down life).

Privilege is easier to ring up, in a sense, than class, even though class feels like it ought to be a measurable factor in discerning privilege. We should be proud of our privileges, or at least happy we had/have them. I like the idea that I was privileged, that I had a leg up, but I also enjoy realizing, yes, I was at least aware as a kid what the heat bill was like. (I am filled with pride.) Whether we were going up or down with re-marrying parents or guardians changing jobs or locations, with whatever kinds of ups and downs, it means we had something. Regardless of whether your first car was new or used, who paid for it, or if you even had a first car.
 
 
Quantum
09:21 / 06.11.07
Me too, poverty and class are definitely separable. I was part of a single parent family in the Thatcher recession, but we had books (no telly) and did worthy educational things, and are 'well spoken' and stuff, it sounds like my experience is similar to Ex's, people presenting above their wealth because it's the done thing.
I keep thinking of E.M. Forster's Howard's End, and the poor guy who loses his umbrella.
 
 
Tsuga
09:24 / 06.11.07
Even with seven, I still feel privileged. The scaling of this questionnaire is pretty high in the first place, really.
Did your parents buy Grey Poupon on a regular basis?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
09:32 / 06.11.07
We should be proud of our privileges, or at least happy we had/have them.

Rrrrreally? Should I be proud to be white, or proud that I had the right vocabulary to get into an elite university ahead of potentially more deserving candidates? I am sort of happy about those things, but I don't think that that is necessarily a _good_ happiness - it's the happiness of escaping a burning building, but not the happiness of having helped everyone else escape from it, rather than, say, having climbed over them (while, of course, being climbed over in turn) to reach a window.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
09:45 / 06.11.07
Er, yes, I really don't think we should be proud of our privileges. Grateful for some, maybe.

The obvious answer to the question "why slip from privilege to class?" is that it's a lot easier to make it clear that you're not too posh than it is to deny that you're privileged. But I'd note that the questions/criteria do contribute to that fudging process.

Of course there is a thread about this... ("Have you read it?" "I've had the privilege!")
 
 
Evil Scientist
09:47 / 06.11.07
I think it is possible to be grateful for the privileges that I had/have whilst recognising that others haven't had the advantage of some or all of those privileges and that that isn't a good thing.
 
 
Evil Scientist
09:48 / 06.11.07
X-posted with Petey Shaftoe's CRIME BLITZ.
 
  

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