What Does Privilege Mean To You?
As defined by Google, privilege is “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people.” To me, it means being able to go to school every day, to live in a democratic country with freedom of speech, to have money in my bank account and access to food everywhere I go. It also means being able to sit here and type up this post and film this type of video. To you, it could mean something entirely different.
Taking a look at the events progressing from the advent of mankind to the year 2015, we are living in the best of times and the worst of times. For us certain lucky folks, we have access to clean drinking water, the internet, and modern medicine. But we also sit in the midst of economic and political instability, war, and discrimination.
There isn’t anything wrong with privilege, as some may argue. It is my opinion that we should all be able to live in prosperity and take any opportunity presented (as long as it’s not at the great expense of others). So long as we remain grateful. At the end of each day, we must go home and reflect on how truly amazing it is to live the lives that we do. I am a believer in the philosophy that there is always someone who is doing worse than myself. There is connotation that this mantra belittles ones problems, but I view it as humbling. Instead of always thinking about what we don’t have, it is much more productive to focus on what we do have. Perception is one of the most powerful tools a person can wield, and you can use it to make your life miserable or magical.
Inside The Project
Try as hard as I may, at the end of the day the results of these projects come down to the people who are involved. I originally reached out to around 20 people and had about 15 RSVP confirming their attendance. Just like any group activity, though, I had half those people cancel last minute. To say the least, it was fairly disheartening. I don’t hold anything against these people, family emergencies are inevitable, but my plot to have diversity was essentially shot in the face. A mixed cast of participants is important for a project like this, these “social experiments” if you will, which I totally understand. Nonetheless, those who did make it out were really good sports and gained quite a bit of insight as a result. At the end of the day, that’s all I can ask for.
Unfortunately, there were no accessible “free rent” boardroom spaces I could find, thus forcing the filming process to the great outdoors. The wind was not our friend and random people kept walking through our set. Our awesome camera woman, Rebecca, was feeling quite under the weather that day and was working with a single non-motile tripod. She apologized fiercely for any shaky shots, but she can’t be blamed, either. Additionally, my editing is nowhere near stellar. The royalty free music was actually quite cooperative for my purposes, and was, admittedly, used more so to help to mask background noise than add ambiance. Thanks to iMovie, the sound in the original video also got messed up during exporting and I had a ton of fun fixing that whole debacle (resulting in this post being published much later than the previously intended date).
Nonetheless, it all worked out in the end. For what we were working with, I feel that the video turned out spectacularly and am proud of the results. After all, I wasn’t seeking an amazing video. What I hope resonates with people is some sort of lesson, whatever that may be to certain people. At the least, I wish for everyone to take a moment to be grateful for what they have in their lives.
How Privileged Are You?
The video only featured a fraction of the questions that I asked the participants. If you’re interested in trying out this project for yourself, here are the questions that I used:
1. If your parents worked nights and weekends to support your family, take one step back.
2. If you are able to move through the world without fear of sexual assault, take one step forward.
3. If you can show affection for your romantic partner in public without fear of ridicule or violence, take one step forward.
4. If you have ever been diagnosed as having a physical or mental illness/disability, take one step back.
5. If the primary language spoken in your household growing up was not English, take one step back.
6. If you came from a supportive family environment take one step forward.
7. If you have ever tried to change your speech or mannerisms to gain credibility, take one step back.
8. If you can go anywhere in the country, and easily find the kinds of hair products you need and/or cosmetics that match your skin color, take one step forward.
9. If you were embarrassed about your clothes or house while growing up, take one step back.
10. If you can make mistakes and not have people attribute your behavior to flaws in your racial/gender group, take one step forward.
11. If you can legally marry the person you love, regardless of where you live, take one step forward.
12. If you were born in Canada, take one step forward.
13. If your parents have ever gone through a divorce, take one step back.
14. If you felt like you had adequate access to healthy food growing up, take one step forward
15. If you are reasonably sure you would be hired for a job based on your ability and qualifications, take one step forward.
16. If you would never think twice about calling the police when trouble occurs, take one step forward.
17. If you can see a doctor whenever you feel the need, take one step forward.
18. If you feel comfortable being emotionally expressive/open, take one step forward.
19. If you have ever been the only person of your race/gender/socio-economic status/sexual orientation in a classroom or workplace setting, take one step back.
20. If you get time off for your religious holidays, take one step forward.
21. If you had a job during your high school and/or college years, take one step back.
22. If you feel comfortable walking home alone at night, take one step forward.
23. If you have ever traveled outside the country, take one step forward.
24. If you have ever felt like there was NOT adequate or accurate representation of your racial group, sexual orientation group, gender group, and/or disability group in the media, take one step back.
25. If you feel confident that your parents would be able to financially help/support you if you were going through a financial hardship, take one step forward.
26. If you have ever been bullied or made fun of based on something that you can’t change, take one step back.
27. If there were more than 50 books in your house growing up, take one step forward.
28. If you studied the culture or the history of your ancestors in elementary school take one step forward.
29. If your parents or guardians attended college, take one step forward.
30. If you ever went on a family vacation, take one step forward.
31. If you can buy new clothes or go out to dinner when you want to, take one step forward.
32. If you were ever offered a job because of your association with a friend or family member, take one step forward.
33. If one of your parents was ever laid off or unemployed not by choice, take one step back.
34. If you were ever uncomfortable about a joke or a statement you overheard related to your race, ethnicity, gender, appearance, or sexual orientation but felt unsafe to confront the situation, take one step back.
Since this was a project for youth, I had to modify the questions a bit from the originals that I found on Buzzfeed. What I loved about the project was the fact that these questions were so blunt, vital, and overlooked in daily conversations. This experience was definitely worth it and I would recommend it 200% to anybody who’s even remotely curios.