The Privilege Walk

[brother_dour]

First, let's start with the video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/07/06/what-is-privilege_n_7737466.html

Then, let's look at the questions.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/dayshavedewi/what-is-privilege#.ih3DbEB0j

Feel free to take the quiz yourself if you dare. Myself, I scored a +9.  I never had to take a step back, but I did miss a few steps forward (I am a straight, white, male of mostly Anglo-European descent, but I did grow up pretty darn poor by North American standards to parents who did not have HS diplomas).

I do want to point out one thing, though: the point of this is not to shame anyone, nor does it suggest that everything should be equal.  It will never be equal, and obviously the inner-city black kid and the upper-middle class white suburban kid alike had zero control over what family they were born into.

The point is to show people who don't think privilege is a big deal are wrong, that "if you work hard enough, you can succeed" is not exactly true. If you are far enough behind, you will *never* catch up if the system is against you- and denying one's own privilege is not helping others to catch up in any manner.