I thought this was interesting so decided to share, although I would rather put this in a more visual thread so that it's not just URMs who see it, but I don't want to be seen as inflammatory.
This exercise is called the class layer cake by Maggie Jochild.Each of these questions is designed to (very roughly) divide people into lower, middle and upper class, without using income. You take a step forward for each indicator of privilege, and one step back for each that is an indicator of disadvantage.
For number 1 you take a step forward for each degree (HS, BS, Masters, PHD) they earned. For number 10 you take a step back for each disadvantage. Its to look at forms of privilege people dont think about. My sister completed this exercise in one of her Grad Psychology classes and told me about it.
1. Did your parents/the people who raised you finish high school, finish college, or get a graduate degree?
Finished highschool, did not really finish college maybe an associate.
2. Did your family ever receive any kind of public assistance OR has your family gone abroad for reasons other than visiting family still there or being sent on a job?
Unemployment count?
3. Were you raised by a single parent/are you a single parent OR have you or your parents hired someone to work in your home?
single parent.. no maid in my house
4. Have you lived in a trailer, family-owned or subsistence farm, or government-subsidized housing OR in a gated community, apartment building with doorman/front security, or owned a second home?
Apartment one bedroom.. no doorman or security, should've been.
5. Do you or the people who raised you work for an hourly wage doing manual labor, skilled or unskilled work, pink collar or clerical, OR is at least 30% of your annual income from something other than your direct labor? (If you don't know how much of your income comes from non-labor sources, assume it is over 30%.)
hourly wage labor, unskilled I suppose hence the the easy layoff from multiple jobs.
6. During high school and college vacations, did you work at a wage-earning job, OR during those vacations you went to a non-church camp or traveled with the expense paid for by your family?
I worked or did a paid internship...Have not been on a vacation with me family since I was four.
7. Did you or your family ever go without car insurance because of lack of money, OR did you or your family ever own more than one new car at a time?
One car... Why would one go without car insurance? It is illegal. Is my family without health insurance..yes.
8. Are you or any member of your immediate family disabled, chronically ill or dead due to lack of medical care because they could not afford it, OR do you or any member of your family have attendant, nursing care or assisted living which is paid for privately?
No.
9. Do you or any member of your immediate family have visibly missing or decayed teeth, OR have any of you had cosmetic caps or teeth polishing?
I have not been to a dentist my mother went once when she had a job, they gave her benifits (that she should could afford).
10. Have you or any member of your immediate family ever been Holocaust survivors, non-English-speaking immigrants, homeless or incarcerated?
Yeah, my dad.
What do you think?
