My privilege
When I skimmed these questions, I formed the answers in my mind, and immediately I am aware that the discourse I selected in the mind draft is genuine but also defending for the status/social class I am in, as I know I am privileged in many aspects of my life. Though I am a believer in social justice, it is still not easy to admit, scrutinize, and criticize my privileges.
- Tell us how you managed to get where you are in life today: your academic degree, teaching position etc.
I am the only child of my family, and my father is the only boy in his family. In his generation, the influence of old China’s “value male and belittle female” still remained to some degree. So I was the beloved daughter and granddaughter of the larger family. And in the generation that I was born in China, parents tended to invest a lot in their children’s education. So my privilege is being the only child in the family and my family is willing to and trying to provide me the best education as they can. I started to learn different instruments, drawing, English, and swimming as my extracurricular activities before I attended elementary school. I attended one of the best middle and high schools in my city. However, I didn’t realize that this was my privilege but just took it for granted until I see people who lived a totally different life. I participated in a rural teaching service volunteer program in my freshman year. I served as a teacher who taught them Standard Mandarin. Later in my resume, I can add this service as a “volunteer” item. However, this experience itself is a privilege. If I don’t have the chance to go to college, I may not easily access this service opportunity.
Later on, I taught abroad in Thailand and the US. Those experiences paved my way to pursue a “better” teaching position in China. I taught Chinese at Tsinghua University, one of the best in China. Privilege is like an invisible ladder to “help” me to where I would like to go.
- What kind of support did you receive? (financial, pastoral, collegial, friendship, family, social networks, etc)
My family supported me financially and mentally all my life. My parents give me the freedom to pursue what I want to lead me a happy life in the future. I have a lot of close friends who offered and provided me plenty of happy memories and emotionally supported me.
- How equally do you think these support systems are distributed in the society you grew up?
I grew up in the capital city of Yunnan Province, located in southwest China. In capital cities, educational and medical recourses and public infrastructures are centralized here.
- How do you think these support systems shape your story of fighting injustices in the society or in educational contexts?
Though I grew up in the city, my parents grew up in small cities. My parents taught me the importance of humility and being considerate. I think this value shaped me into a person who is willing to listen and empathize. As I stepped into the educational field, I found that education is where one of my identities leads me to. So I am willing to commit myself to work on social injustices.
Hi Xinxin! I like your comparison between privilege and an “invisible ladder” helping us on our path. I think that “ladder” can be especially invisible to ourselves and in many cases intentionally kept invisible. I see part of the work in social justice is making sure we unveil this privilege to highlight the disparities between us.
Xinxin, thank you for your post and personal history. I think part of carrying privilege is being aware and cognizant of this. In what ways can my privilege help myself but also others within the community. It is very special to me that your parents taught you about humility and being considerate as a child. I think many individuals have to learn about this the hard away or never at all.
I agree with Mia, Xinxin. I also think that identifying that ladder is the first step that we can take towards a more just world. The thing is some people see that ladder as something that they built on their own (for upward mobility) when it is mostly the case that the latter is provided for us so that we move forward as smoothly as possible – that’s when privilege comes into play.
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I appreciate the effort put into this post.