Issues Pages:
'How privileged are you?' (Quiz)
Sun, 2016-06-19 04:08
#1
'How privileged are you?' (Quiz)
Sun, 2016-06-19 04:10
#2
Just found this quiz.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/how-privileged-are-you?utm_term=.yd3pmL...
(full disclosure: my score was 61 out of 100 "checks"...which was rated as "Quite Privileged".
Hope people here will take the quiz and also offer your feedback on it.
Sun, 2016-06-19 04:23
#3
Left Turn
I got 64 points out of 100 on this quiz.
Sun, 2016-06-19 08:38
#4
41 out of 100 = not at all.
Sun, 2016-06-19 09:19
#5
62. Feedback: Don't really know, have to think about it. But since I'm "quite privileged", I should have lots of time to do that.
Sun, 2016-06-19 10:50
#6
27 out of 100, despite being white, heterosexual, having a university degree and having studied abroad (on a scholarship, of course). I'm glad this test gave significant weight to social factors. Actually I do have some "non-white" ancestry and relatives, but I think that is incredibly common in the Americas. I have blue-green eyes and skin considered "white", though not pale and pinky.
One odd question was whether both one's parents were still alive. I think the fact that my dad died when I was 15 is "non-privilege", but my mum died after a very long life. In that case the age of the person answering the question matters a great deal.
Sun, 2016-06-19 14:42
#7
Saw this awhile ago on FB. My response:
Interesting quiz, but I was kind of surprised how it focused on the most privileged - summer camp? Annual international vacations? By contrast, nothing in there about jail, language, citizenship, prostitution, or being forced to do risky work or take more than one job, or being on social assistance. Or having a roof over your head. A number of questions about gender, not one about sex - questions of pregnancy (or discrimination because of the assumption you might GET pregnant), access to abortion and single parenthood. And they mention being able to afford drugs and a therapist (which doesn't affect everyone) rather than being able to afford a dentist (which does). And sad to say, access to fresh water. And clearly, no one who is unable to read is going to even be able to do the quiz. Not too much of a criticism, because it is an online quiz, but it is definitely within the bubble of those of those of us who spend time online.
Though on second thought, I changed my mind about summer camp. I never went as a kid, but what is is for most of the people I know is cheap daycare (and it is cheaper) because you have to have your kids somewhere. That is how we deal with a week or two in our summer schedule, and it is deductable as daycare.
Sun, 2016-06-19 15:31
#8
It's possible for the child of a billionaire to score under 30 on that quiz
Sun, 2016-06-19 16:59
#9
I was always wondering why they didn't mention dentistry and state of dentition...
And on the other hand, books in the house. My family was poor and chaotic, and my dad almost always ill, but we had tonnes of books.
But really, one must not take such quizzes too seriously.
Sun, 2016-06-19 17:28
#10
But really, one must not take such quizzes too seriously.
Ya, I think this one is less of a valid sociological research instrument, and more of an "eye opener" for mostly hetero, mostly white mostly guys.
One tell is questions like "I have never been discriminated against because of the color of my skin". How would I know that? I'm not suggesting that I have, but if I were, I don't think anyone would be obligated to inform me.
Lots of other questions/statements read as very crafted, and somewhat invalid from a methodology POV, e.g.: "I have never had an eating disorder" Does that strongly correlate with privelege now? Someone tell me more.
Sun, 2016-06-19 23:57
#11
"I have never had an eating disorder" Does that strongly correlate with privelege now? Someone tell me more.
I get how it could, but does it refer to gender and body shaming? sexual abuse? Mental illness? It could refer to a lot of things, some not strictly related to privilege.
Mon, 2016-06-20 07:59
#12
56, although I expected the number to be higher.
Mon, 2016-06-20 14:42
#13
Got 67. Thought I was going to get higher, but then it really went off the rails for me in a few parts. Yeah, I wouldn't take it too seriously as some sort of legitimate socialogical metric, but it's the sort of thing that might make a good exercise in one of those anti oppression 101 workshops.
Hey Magoo, the real reason I banned you all those years ago was because you're white cis and straight. So retake the test!
Mon, 2016-06-20 15:39
#14
Hey Magoo, the real reason I banned you all those years ago was because you're white cis and straight. So retake the test!
Seems I'm still white, cis and straight. Anyway, 63.
Mon, 2016-06-20 16:40
#15
bagkitty
Some real odd things in that quiz - if you can't afford to fly, you get to check yes to the questions about not being worried about airport security and never being sent for secondary inspection at passport control. Also the initial race based questions, yes I am white (think of the belly of a dead fish floating in a lake) and yet I have been the only person of my race in a room... primarily cause I was volunteering time to help with a community publication primarily directed to a group to which I do not belong - which of course lead to a hilarious telephone conversation where I was told I "sounded white" I suspect this may have skewed my score (23) in a certain direction. There was, to my mind at least, a glaring omission in the quiz - something along the lines have you ever experienced shock, incredulity, judgment or refusal for a cab to take you to the district in which you resided. And I really have to wonder about the relying on public transporation question - lots of regional variation in that and not just urban/rural - could really be tweaked along the lines of whether or not you have any choice in transportation or if you have to rely on the proverbial "kindness of strangers".
Mon, 2016-06-20 18:08
#16
I got 36 the first time I went through it and thought that was way low, so I did it over again from scratch and got 35. Hmm...
Seriously, the quiz is not useful.
Although the quiz-maker tried to make it seem more objective, in general discussion "privilege" is just jargon for "ability", "talent", or "intelligence", or "maleness", or "whiteness", or "wealth", or whatever else you don't like. It's an ad hominem argument in a can.
Mon, 2016-06-20 18:24
#17
68
Obviously very privileged and but already knew that
Mon, 2016-06-20 18:57
#18
Misfit
I scored 38. Oh well.
Mon, 2016-06-20 19:19
#19
I think more than anything it is designed to give the those who take it a bit of 101 (not the rats on face kind), but not so much of a dose of reality that they feel bad and get pissed off. After all, they do want us to spread the results around, and "You deserve to be sent to the guillotine" wouldn't serve their ends.
Just did the test. Got 44. Should be higher. I'm white, straight, male, I own a house and I don't really want for anything.
Spotted another weird one. No I never had a student loan; not because I was too wealthy, but because they turned me down. In hindsight I consider myself lucky.
Mon, 2016-06-20 21:15
#20
George W. Bush wasn't educated abroad and has never vacationed abroad. Does that mean HE isn't privileged?
Mon, 2016-06-20 21:47
#21
That's why he scored a mere 98.
Mon, 2016-06-20 22:16
#22
That's why he scored a mere 98.
Mon, 2016-06-20 22:23
#23
Strange little quiz. I consider myself to be a privileged middle class white man and it says I scored a 30. The questions were too open ended. So after 65 years on the planet it is hard to say I have never worried about money or skipped meals even if I haven't had to for decades.
Mon, 2016-06-20 23:00
#24
That's why he scored a mere 98.
Tue, 2016-06-21 02:21
#25
laine lowe
It was a weird quiz and I scored 41. I agree and don't agree with the pat assessment of that score.
Sun, 2016-09-04 18:46
#26
Bec.De.Corbin
53? I'd thought I'd be higher and I can't belive I've scored lower than some of you hardcore lefties... 
An interesting factoid of my life: I'm 56 and I've never been pulled over by a white male police officer (three times) for something I did wrong and then not given a ticket. The only police officers whom have ever cut me a break and let me off with a warning were Black (twice) and Latino; a Texas State Trooper no less (once).
How strange is that?
Sun, 2016-09-04 18:55
#27
Here's a few suggested questions for this survey:
- are you taking this survey on a computer or smartphone that you own?
- is the language of this survey your first language?
- do you have time in your day to take internet surveys that don't really have any impact on you or your life?
- have you ever felt guilty, or been made to feel guilty, about your privelege?
Sun, 2016-09-04 23:38
#28
A few questions in response to your suggested questions:
1) How do you KNOW this survey won't have any impact on the lives of those who take it?
2) Doesn't anything that calls on a person to stop, even briefly, to examine herself and her life for at least have the potential to make that person achieve self-improvement?
3) If you really think it's pointless and absurd to have taken the time to respond to this survey, what, if I might ask, do you feel would have been a better use of that time?
If you're going to go to the trouble of doing a "this is silly" drive-by post like that, you have some obligation to answer questions like that.
Mon, 2016-09-05 13:42
#29
1) How do you KNOW this survey won't have any impact on the lives of those who take it?
When I said "no impact" I just meant it's not (say) a survey about stop signs in my neighbourhood or ER wait times.
2) Doesn't anything that calls on a person to stop, even briefly, to examine herself and her life for at least have the potential to make that person achieve self-improvement?
Sure.
3) If you really think it's pointless and absurd to have taken the time to respond to this survey, what, if I might ask, do you feel would have been a better use of that time?
I'm not suggesting it's pointless or absurd. My first two questions were merely to point out that simply by taking a survey like this, we're priveleged. I think owning a computer or a smartphone says more about my privelege than whether I've ever been called a "dyke". OF COURSE I've never been called a "dyke".