Check Your Privilege!

[JMac85]

I don't think religion is a good measure of privilege for someone that has no religion and there was no option to skip them. Of course I've never been persecuted for my religion I don't have one for people to make fun of.

You can still have someone go all Ned Flanders on you, trying to "win you back to the flock". Yeah, those people tend to proselytize in general, but when they hear you're an atheist or agnostic, they see you as unclaimed land to plant their flag in.

Someone I work with says they pray for me every week at church ever since I told them I was an atheist. I think it's just adorable.

 

[Sunrider]

48 / 100. Guess being a white, heterosexual male is not always life on easymode after all!

 

[The Squid King]

37%. As a white male, this is slightly surprising

 

[rutger5000]

The opposite is true. Being fat has way more to do with what you eat than how much you eat of it. If you avoid animal products, than it really doesn't matter how much you eat, you won't get fat easily.
For example if you eat single small bag of chips everyday you'll gain weight and grow fat, but if you eat 7 pieces of fruit everyday you won't gain nearly as much weight.
Basically you'll shit out most of the stuff you eat. Not saying that veganism is healthy, but it's a way to loose weight. A vegetarian diet is much healthier though, and it too can help loose weight.

I don't think it's true that 155 calories(small bag of potato chips) > 721 calories(7 apples). Also, getting fat on either one of those items is not a foregone conclusion and is dependent on how much energy you're spending, but it's the chips that require far less extra movement to burn off. It's actually one of the biggest pitfalls with people dieting: they think they can go bat-shit insane on anything that came from a plant, the ground, or anything marketed as being diet/lite/healthy then wonder why they're actually gaining weight because they've been going overboard with the orange juice, nuts, chicken, and 9-grain whole wheat bread to fill the hole in their stomach. At least in America, what we eat is bad, but we are far and away worse with the quantity we eat. Not to mention reducing quantity of what we eat is easier to accomplish and stick with than completely shifting what we eat(best option being to do a bit of both).

Not to say a vegetarian diet isn't usually healthier than the typical diet. It is, but it's because a vegetarian diet has a lot more built-in and natural portion control than the high-carb, high-fat, low-fiber diets most people have[footnote]I.E. It's a lot harder to eat 7 apples in a day than one bag of chips as even one apple is going to be more filling in the long-term than one bag of chips.[/footnote]. Now, if you said someone with all-you-can-eat chips will gain more weight than someone with all-you-can-eat apples, I'd agree 100%.

Yet that's exactly how it works. The human digest system is a funny thing. The energy in those chips is pure fat, and will be very effectively be transformed in your own fat. The energy in those 7 pieces of fruit is in natural sugars. They converted to bodily sugar if your body is low on them, or simply pass through your body if they don't.
But perhaps there's a cultural-economics difference here. I've had American orange juice (basically liquid sugar), chicken (2 words hormones and antibiotics, don't eat them) and bread (O my f*cking God, I wouldn't even eat that again if I was paid for it). Yet you consider this as healthy, quality food. If that is what passes for healthy food in America, than I suppose there is a case to be made for quantity over quality.

 

[rutger5000]

You're just jealous because my score was super high. XD

Does that mean you're not only checking your privilege, but reveling in it?

Well why wouldn't one revel in it. I'm super privileged and super glad about it. I don't know if your a tall Caucasian mostly straight man, but it ffing rules. I can enter pretty much everywhere. People trust me way way beyond reason. Nobody messes with me. Plenty of girls are attracted to me (some guys too) etc etc, the list goes on and on. I realize it must suck to be a small, negroid, homosexual woman but that doesn't mean I'm not going to enjoy my privileges.

 

[Ariseishirou]

32/100 and "Not Privileged"

...Which is weird because I feel absolutely privileged. I live in the first world. My education has been almost entirely funded through scholarships.

I did grow up well below the poverty line, and was frequently viciously attacked for not sharing my family's beliefs (including physical abuse and threats of homelessness) so... I guess that's enough? I still have enough to eat every day, have a good job, and plenty of technology. Sure I worked my ass off for a lot of that, but I also got plenty of help from the government/my school's donors/etc.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Privilege doesn't mean anything for how good your life is. Poor people can be miserable, rich people can be miserable, there's no correlation.

There is a significant correlation - otherwise the privilege would be nonexistent - but this correlation is not perfect. Privilege of any kind only increases the likelihood of you having a good life, but this likelihood is not equal to 100%, i.e. you are not garanteed to have a good life.
I think/hope that that's what you meant. And that's what many people who believe privilege doesn't exist don't seem to understand. They don't realize that claiming that their life sucking even though they're white/straigh/male/etc disproves the existence of privilege is about as legit as some dude claiming that because he's shorter than most of the women he knows, women would be on average taller then men...

... indeed a "very doubtful" proposition, to cite my captcha.

What's missing in this equation is a definition of "a good life". What does that mean? Are we talking about a set list of criteria to impose, or the subject's view of their own life? Can you go through your life without realising that your life "sucked"? What if someone tells me my life is good and I disagree?

I'm merely using your exact words, so don't flip it back on me.

Now first of all you seem to believe that life satisfaction, happiness or whatever you want to call it is not related to material wealth. Well, as it turns out, regardless of what you believe Buddha might have said, you're wrong.

We know from countless of surveys from all over the world that (self-reported) happiness correlates with income, both in absolute terms (up to a point; an often-cited ballpark figure is 10.000$ PPP annual income) as well as in relative terms compared to your peers. Not for the money itself, but because this money enables you to pay for things that most people indeed cherish very much: health care, decent food, decent living conditions, education for their kids, and so on.

And frankly, you're (at best) rather naive if you believe that living "a few days without basic necessities" is in any way comparable to living your whole life without basic necessities. Just because I go camping in the wilderness for a week, for example, doesn't mean I understand what it is like to live without a solid roof above my head for my entire life.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

54/100, or quite privileged.

I'll be honest, I expected higher.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Privilege doesn't mean anything for how good your life is. Poor people can be miserable, rich people can be miserable, there's no correlation.

There is a significant correlation - otherwise the privilege would be nonexistent - but this correlation is not perfect. Privilege of any kind only increases the likelihood of you having a good life, but this likelihood is not equal to 100%, i.e. you are not garanteed to have a good life.
I think/hope that that's what you meant. And that's what many people who believe privilege doesn't exist don't seem to understand. They don't realize that claiming that their life sucking even though they're white/straigh/male/etc disproves the existence of privilege is about as legit as some dude claiming that because he's shorter than most of the women he knows, women would be on average taller then men...

... indeed a "very doubtful" proposition, to cite my captcha.

What's missing in this equation is a definition of "a good life". What does that mean? Are we talking about a set list of criteria to impose, or the subject's view of their own life? Can you go through your life without realising that your life "sucked"? What if someone tells me my life is good and I disagree?

I'm merely using your exact words, so don't flip it back on me.

Now first of all you seem to believe that life satisfaction, happiness or whatever you want to call it is not related to material wealth. Well, as it turns out, regardless of what you believe Buddha might have said, you're wrong.

We know from countless of surveys from all over the world that (self-reported) happiness correlates with income, both in absolute terms (up to a point; an often-cited ballpark figure is 10.000$ PPP annual income) as well as in relative terms compared to your peers. Not for the money itself, but because this money enables you to pay for things that most people indeed cherish very much: health care, decent food, decent living conditions, education for their kids, and so on.

I'm not saying happiness isn't related to material wealth. All I'm saying is happiness depends very much if not entirely on the subject's idea of what happiness is. If they have the idea that happiness is feeling pleasure, then they'll answer positively if they have nice home, food and sex. Many cultures espouse that God or liberation is needed for happiness, so pleasure won't mean much to them. All that your surveys can establish is what people THINK makes them happy (whatever that may mean for us or them) and how much their degree of 'privilege' satisfies that criteria.

 

[wulf3n]

I'd wager that being white in places where whites are the ethnic minority, or form no significant share of the population whatsoever, is generally not worse than not being white in predominantly white countries. To make a statement with a reasonable degree of certainty here seems difficult though, since being white tends to coincide with privileges in the economic sphere. So whether you're generally doing relatively okay because you're white or because you're relatively wealthy... because you're white, this question might be a bit tricky to disentangle.

I mean, most (all?) countries with a significant white minority are nations with a colonial past. Whites there probably enjoy more privilege than anywhere else even though they're not the majority. Maybe not because they're white, but because they're wealthy... again, which they became because they came from Europe and were hence white.
But I mean, I'm open to actual evidence, so if you can point to really relevant cases where whites don't have it rather well in any countries where they're at most a minority, go ahead. From the top of my head, I can recall not that much.

Anyway, that seems to be mostly semantics to me. Most of us here will be from the West, and here the majority is white, so whether we enjoy "white privilege" or "ethnic majority privilege" doesn't really change anything, in particular not for those who are not white and thus not in the ethnic majority and thus do not enjoy this privilege... or does it?
But since you acknowledge the existence of a ethnicity-based privilege, that is, the very same thing quite a few people deny, we're pretty much sitting in the same boat on the broader issue. Or not?

It is a matter of semantics, essentially, and that's something I consider to be important. By removing the racial aspect the crux of the issue becomes clear, having things in common with those with power leads to advantages more easily. However when it is referred to as "white" privilege it not only obfuscates the issue at hand under a veneer of prejudice it trivializes the not insignificant number of white people that don't have things in common with those in power, and don't have the so called "white privileges".

Now amongst rational human beings like you or myself it's not much of an issue, I know what you're referring to. Unfortunately all too often the concept of white privilege or more specifically being a straight white male is used to disimiss the opinions of another. Ironically it occurs quite frequently in conversations on various types of discrimination and how they are bad.

As for how white people are treated around the world I really couldn't say, all I have is rumor.

 

[CloudAtlas]

It is a matter of semantics, essentially, and that's something I consider to be important. By removing the racial aspect the crux of the issue becomes clear, having things in common with those with power leads to advantages more easily. However when it is referred to as "white" privilege it not only obfuscates the issue at hand under a veneer of prejudice it trivializes the not insignificant number of white people that don't have things in common with those in power, and don't have the so called "white privileges".

No. In a world where racism exists, and is generally flowing into certain directions, ethnic privilege matters. Every white person in the West has white privilege. Your life may suck for many reasons, but at least your ethnicity is not one of them, even though that will be of little comfort to you.

You seem to have a hard time wrapping your head around the idea that one can both be priviliged in certain ways and disadvantaged in other. A white woman enjoys white privilege but not male privilege. A straight white man enjoys the triple privilege of being straight, white, and male, but if he's born to poor parents who didn't care about his education, he is off to a bad start anyway. Speaking of whom...

Now amongst rational human beings like you or myself it's not much of an issue, I know what you're referring to. Unfortunately all to often the concept of white privilege or more specifically being a straight white male is used to disimiss the opinions of another. Ironically it occurs quite frequently in conversations on various types of discrimination and how they are bad.

Straight white males really have themselves to blame the most here. Their opinions are not dismissed out of nowhere in these debates. They're dismissed because too many members of this group are terribly ignorant about the nature of privilege, however much that may suck for all others.

You know, I'm a straight white male too. And what is more, I was born to loving, educated, open-minded middle-class parents in a wealthy country. Yet I'm still struggling with finding a job despite having a decent master's degree in a somewhat useful discipline, economics. Does that disprove the existence of all these privileges? No. It just means that I'm apparently not a representative case. But at least I won't be beaten up by Nazis on the station, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

As for how white people are treated around the world I really couldn't say, all I have is rumor.

Well, I doubt they're treated worse in countries with sizeable white minorities, as those are all countries with a colonial past, and as such the whites today still enjoy some degree of privilege from times past, even if only through being born to, on average, more wealthy and educated parents. And you can't make a statement how whites are treated as minority in countries without significant white minority. And I doubt they think too lowly of whites in those countries, what with all the whites used in advertisement and such all over Asia and the like.

 

[Deadcyde]

30 out of a hundred.

Guess being white, straight and male doesn't pay off as much as it should. Not that any self respecting feminist would think that means a jot compared to women's issues. Clearly because I'm a man I should have used some sort of masculine magic to change that score. One of the questions was even "are you a man?".

*rolls eyes*

I blame myself for falling for this clickbait

 

[Vault101]

30 out of a hundred.

Guess being white, straight and male doesn't pay off as much as it should. Not that any self respecting feminist would think that means a jot compared to women's issues. Clearly because I'm a man I should have used some sort of masculine magic to change that score. One of the questions was even "are you a man?".

*rolls eyes*

I blame myself for falling for this clickbait

oh don't start please...privilege does not mean free ice cream and mercedes for the chosen few..its not zero sum...its cross sectional

I am female, men have certain privileges I do not
I am white, I have certain privileges other ethnicities do not
I am from a good income family I have certain privileges poor people do not
I Identify as female I have certain privileges trans people do not
I am straight I have certain privileges Gay people do not

make sense?

 

[OneCatch]

I'm a white, straight male and I got a 48/100 even though I answered 100% honestly. I'm quite surprised, but I guess this just goes to show "privilege" is not secret Tumblr code for "bias against straight white dudes."

Naturally, I'm oh-so shocked by that fact.

Ha! I got 49. I am precisely 1/100th more white and straight than you!

Still, the format bugged me. Switching from 'I have' to 'I have never' questions was irritating, and there were *a lot* of questions there which probably artificially messed with my score - it's probably lower than it should be. I didn't grow up in a particularly financially privileged environment, but my schooling was decent, I'm not in any significantly discriminated demographic, and I'm doing ok on my current salary.
Responding to the following kind of thing without allowing for context was rather imprecise:
"I've never had a roommate" (room sharing in college is very rare in the UK, having an individual room isn't an indicator of particular affluence)
"I am comfortable with PDA with my significant other" (it makes me uncomfortable, but not because of my gender identity or whatever. I suspect that even the phrase 'PDA' has more negative connotation in the UK than the US)
"I have never been told I sound white" (I am white, but when I was in a callcenter you used quite regularly to get slightly racist elderly people saying 'Oh thank god, I'm through to a white person not an indian!'.

Perhaps I should have been a little more interpretive in my answers...

 

[lawrencein]

"You live with 24 out of 100 points of privilege.

You?re underprivileged. The world is not a fair or ideal place and you know that because you grew up with several identities that the world is not kind to. You had a lot of challenges to overcome simply to get on a level playing field with most people in the world. It is not your job to educate the world about its injustices, but if you choose to, go ahead and send them this quiz. Hopefully it will help."

Straight White Male here. There are some very strange questions here like "Has anyone ever asked if your hair was real/if they could touch it?" Well yeah because I'm a dude who had the longest hair in my school out of everyone there Male or Female, apparently this means I am unprivileged.

 

[DSK-]

41/100

You?re not privileged at all. You grew up with an intersectional, complicated identity, and life never let you forget it. You?ve had your fair share of struggles, and you?ve worked hard to overcome them. We do not live in an ideal world and you had to learn that the hard way.

Sounds about right I 'spose.

 

[Something Amyss]

San Fransisco

wot.

You...You do know you don't magically get more rights for being in San Fran, right? You're still subject to federal laws, for example.

Gays in San Fransisco still get a lot of shit from the overall community and the same is true of other areas in the US with large gay communities, so I don't know where you're getting your info, but it's not based in reality.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

81/100 "You are the most privileged"

Huh. I guess when you look at it, I am pretty privileged. Expected it to be lower though due to ethnicity.

 

[Something Amyss]

30 out of a hundred.

Guess being white, straight and male doesn't pay off as much as it should. Not that any self respecting feminist would think that means a jot compared to women's issues. Clearly because I'm a man I should have used some sort of masculine magic to change that score. One of the questions was even "are you a man?".

*rolls eyes*

I blame myself for falling for this clickbait

I'm curious as to where that rant came from. It seems at best tangentially related to the "quiz." So...One question asked if you were a man and it's OMG FEMINISM? That doesn't track. One says "I am white." You may have noticed it. IT's the first one.

So...Ummmm...Yeah?

 

[Vault101]

No, it doesn't make sense, because these are heavily cultural viewpoints that change according to where you are. If you're gay in Copenhagen or San Fransisco, chances are that you're being treated better for it and literally celebrated.

yeah in those pockets, in other areas (and other parts of the world but assuming this test was more meant for america) Gays are hated at best (not to mention wierd misconceptions about what they are like as people and what they do in the bedroom) and victimized at worst.They still can't marry either in some states (certainly not in my country).That aside we also live in a world where everyone is assumed straight until otherwise, where popular media caters to hetero romance and (at worst) stereotypes gay people (though that is getting better) and where coming out can be hazardous to ones health, a gay person in San Fran may be lucky enough to not experience any of this but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen and isn't a problem


[quote/]If you're rich here, you're most likely a douchebag because you probably think you're better than everyone else, so much that some people feel forced to hide their status.[/quote]

oh god...wont someone think of the poor rich people....

really? surely you can grasp the IMMENSE advantage being rich has in ones life? the private schools, the financial security, the opportunities to do SO many things, it doesn't matter how nice you are nor does it mean a rich person is an asshole... people having the misconception that you are an asshole does not cancel that out, nor (quite frankly) will you ever convince me its the same as being poor ...hell "I" can understand it


[quote/]As for gender... If you think being male automatically grants you superior status no matter where or who you are, then you're sorely mistaken.[/quote]

having privileges does not mean superior status (nor YOUR life being a free ride)...it means there are certain things statistically you're less likely to encounter, same with the gay example

I KNOW that because I am White and not say...Indigenous Australian I'm less likely to have people make snap negative judgments about me, I'm less likely to have people move to the other side of the street if its dark out, I'm more likely to come from a better socio economic background, more likely to do better in school, more likely to have better job prospects, more likely to come from a stable home.

I'm curious as to where that rant came from. It seems at best tangentially related to the "quiz." So...One question asked if you were a man and it's OMG FEMINISM? That doesn't track. One says "I am white." You may have noticed it. IT's the first one.

So...Ummmm...Yeah?

the Feminists man..theyre everywhere

...I hear everytime you say something against Feminists they break into your house while your away and lick all your stuff 0_0