Sunday, January 13, 2008

"What Privilege Do You Have" Post Goes Viral

On the road, I kept getting email notices of people posting responses on my What Privilege Do You Have post, 127 comments so far. I had no idea this meme had spread so wildly (just Google privilege meme to see how many hundreds of people who have posted it on their blogs).

My post has also produced some particularly angry responses including this one from an Atlantic Monthly blogger.

I haven't had the time or energy to read all the responses, but my favorite class blogger has read many of them, and posted her thoughtful response here. Check it out.

Many thanks again to Will Barratt for letting me modify his exercise and letting me post it on my blog.

This conversation about class is so important.

Post Script: Another very thoughtful response to the privilege meme here.

2 comments:

Jane said...

Hi, Jeanne

I knew from reading here that you were out of town and I kept thinking "oh, wait until she comes back and sees what's been going on...!"

I'd been watching the early discussions here and hadn't chimed in -- it seemed a good discussion happening within your community.

And then, over the holidays, my technorati searches and google alerts on social class were all about this...and the tone certainly did shift.

It's been fascinating.

Why now? Why did this hit such a nerve?

In amazement,

Jane


Education and Class

cubbie said...

i did that meme. it was over on my livejournal friendslist, which is totally separate from my quakerblog world stuff... but those things (like the privilege walk, if you've ever done that), always makes me feel weird. because i always wind up with so few, but feel like i'm doing well, and feel extra alienated by the people around me. i become extra aware of my lack of privilege and feel like an interloper. very strange. i think that's the wrong thing to feel. (though, i "know" that there's no "wrong" thing to feel.)