January 02, 2008

A Meme for the Privileged

Two days into the new year and I'm already a copy-cat. The bolded items in the list below are ones which are true for me.

The meme is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. Some critique of the assumed privilege built into the exercise is found here (mostly because it was designed to use with university students, I'm guessing).

As an aside, I mentally ticked items off for K and Ms B as I went through (at least as much as I knew for each of them). Although neither of their hypothetical lists was identical to mine, one was much closer.

1. Father went to college.

2. Father finished college.

3. Mother went to college.
4. Mother finished college.

5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.

9. Were read children’s books by a parent.
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.

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

13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18. (I just missed this one--I got my first credit card at age 18 when I went off to college.)
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs. (I don't think Puppy is going to be able to bold this one.)
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.
16. Went to a private high school.
17. Went to summer camp.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels. (We camped our way across the U.S. We even camped by a strawberry field in the shadow of Disneyland, back before Anaheim became one giant strip mall.)
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them. (This one is funny to me because we just last week had a big family car shuffle: my parents bought a new car, we purchased their old car from them and let them trade in the '96 Corolla they bought for me when I graduated from college. I'll admit that I cried to see my car go; it was the car of my first date with T, Puppy's ride home from the hospital, and where umpteen life-changing decisions were made during my L.A. commutes.)
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.

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

25. You had your own room as a child.

26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.

27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college.
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.

2 comments:

Dawn said...

I mentally ticked things off for Jessica, too, and she and I had very similar upbringing, which is something I've always said contributes hugely to our ability to have this open adoption. We share a lot of cultural touchstones/values.

LL said...

Happy New Year to you too! Very interesting post. It will be interesting once my husband and I adopt how similar we are to the birhtmom in background. It got me thinking about my childhood, You had a lot of memories in that old car.

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