Understanding My Privilege
Right now, I have a high school diploma, a B.S. in Biology, and I am working on a master’s degree. In addition to these educational privileges, I have a free place to live in my hometown (Santa Cruz) and so I am able to afford a shared room in Monterey during the week so I do not have to commute. I have also never faced discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, or religion. Here are some of the forms of support I’ve received that have shaped me and brought me to where I am today:
Familial: I grew up in a white, Christian, middle class family in a relatively wealthy and predominantly white area, and my family was very supportive of my education growing up. My parents and grandparents committed to paying for college at a state school for my sister and I. Because I did well in school, I got a scholarship to a small liberal arts university and was able to attend and graduate without loans.
Societal: I grew up as a member of many groups that have some form of privilege and power in U.S. society- white, Christian, L1 English speaker, middle class, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied.
Historical: In my mind, I think of certain forms of privilege as historical because they be traced way back to before I was born, and probably much much further than that. For example, recently I have been thinking a lot about my parents’ and grandparents’ generation. They are the children of European immigrants and grew up during a time when society rewarded people like them for hard work. Even though my grandparents didn’t go to college, they could afford to buy a house and fund their children’s education without going into debt.
When I look back at the various forms of support I grew up with, I see how they intersect with the parts of my identity that hold power or privilege in US society relative to other groups. For example, familial support throughout my education is related to the fact that I am white and middle class: my grandparents encountered few barriers and were able to save money and pass it down to their children. Also, the way primary and secondary school were set up really worked for my learning style. I was really good at standardized testing, and my scores helped me get into a “good” school and receive a scholarship. The small class sizes enabled me to build strong connections with my professors, which eventually landed me a job. I worked hard, but the system also worked for me. In contrast, students who do not perform well on standardized tests or for whom the education system does not meet their needs encounter many extra barriers to higher education. I think we talked about this in Language Assessment last semester– how standardized tests and the U.S. public education system at large have been shown to discriminate against students of color, and also against students who do not learn well under the current common/predominant teaching styles (the banking system of education, rote memorization, etc.). This is an issue I want to engage with in my future classroom by incorporating multimodal learning materials, diverse voices, and high differentiation/learner autonomy, which we talked about in P&P. I also want to talk about very practical ways to do this and lots of examples in our class this semester!
I have also been reflecting a lot lately on how the support systems I grew up with enabled me to be very comfortable with the status quo and shaped my personality to be uncritical and easygoing. I think there were also some personal struggles involved, like difficult family dynamics that created the need for me to avoid conflict, but that’s another story. Our discussions in this class and others have made me more aware of this aspect of my personality, and hopefully a little less blind to the struggles of others which are different from my own. I have noticed myself questioning more and challenging more, whether it is just in my own thoughts or out loud with others/in class. I have also noticed that I am becoming more and more excited and passionate about working with people whose L1 is not English (fully recognizing that English isn’t everything!). I hope to continue to develop a healthy, critical awareness throughout the semester and talk more about engaging students with learning materials that work for them.
Kira, thanks for sharing your privilege reflection. I really liked how you brought up standardized testing! That is something super important to remember when talking about privilege. Unlike you, I am not good at standardized testing but I am good at school. So, I was still able to get into college that way. I don’t know if getting a tutor or taking classes to help prepare for standardized testing was a big thing when I went to school, or maybe I just don’t remember. However, I feel like it’s a big thing now. Looking at the statistics and findings, it just makes me so sad that so many students of color don’t get the same opportunities, even though they would probably benefit the most from it. I also love your quote, “I worked hard, but the system also worked for me”. Good to always remember that lots of people work every day, but the system doesn’t always play to their advantage.
Thanks for your comment, Yanci! I think it’s interesting how people can be very different types of students and still be successful. But it’s still really unfair that the education system/standardized testing forces students to conform. It makes me wonder what a world without these tests would be like considering what a huge role they play in our lives. For example I started STAR testing in 2nd grade and recently took the GRE for grad school– that’s like 20 years! Crazy!!! But it looks like the world of higher ed is starting to move away from these, partially thanks to COVID. I listened to a great This American Life podcast about how colleges stopped requiring the SAT last year and how it impacted students and removed admissions barriers: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/734/the-campus-tour-has-been-cancelled
Thanks Kira for sharing this podcast! I will make sure to listen to it.
Kira, thank you so much for this thoughtful reflection. I love that you included a section on historical privilege. I have had several conversations with my grandparents on race and privilege in the US and they often have a ‘pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps’ kind of mentality and your comments about society at a time when people were rewarded for hard work reminds me that conceptions of privilege can often be generationally dependent.
I second Yanci’s comments; I am so glad that you brought up standardized testing. Standardized tests in many ways lay bare the deeply-rooted racial inequities we have in the U.S. and the ways in which these inequities overlap into access to education. I admire your clearly laid out strategies to combat the inequities in the U.S. public school system- I can tell this is something you have thought a lot about. I love your reflection on the ways in which the support systems in your life enabled you to be comfortable with the status quo. I can really relate to this and to the discomfort that can come when we start to challenge that which has been comfortable. And lastly, seconding Yanci once again, I love your statement “I worked hard, but the system also worked for me.” You encapsulate how I have often felt so well in this statement, thank you for sharing it with us.
Hi Sydney, thanks for your comments! I only have one grandparent left alive, and my conversations with her on this topic sound very similar to what you described. An example is that she recently told me she doesn’t understand why I don’t like the fact that Jeff Bezos is so rich. According to her, he “worked so hard” and earned all that money “by himself,” so he deserves it and should be able to do what he wants with it. It’s like we were saying, I’m sure he worked hard, but the system REALLY worked for him– and in my opinion, absolutely no one needs such an absurd amount of money. Anyway, this is a big rabbit hole we could go down, lol, but you probably get the picture! Thanks again for your kind words!
Kira, I concur Sydney’s and Yanci’s comments and I agree discussing meritocracy (pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps) can get very interesting/challenging/complex with those who may not familiar with the concept but also the larger issues that have an impact on our lives (or in your words, how the system helps some while ignoring the needs of others, or leaves them behind). But maybe more importantly, understanding meritocracy requires the kind of self-reflection you are doing here to understand where you come from, what kind of support you have along the way, and what privileges you have just for your gender, race, ability, class and so on.
Thanks for your comment, Deniz! I hope you enjoy the podcast episode if/when you have a chance to listen 🙂