Posted on 11/20/2015 4:45:57 AM PST by EBH
Participants stand in a straight line in the middle of an empty room. Tell participants that some statements might be of a sensitive nature for some individuals, and that they do not have to respond to any statement that is uncomfortable. Read the statements below.
If your ancestors came to the United States by force, take one step back.
If there were more than 50 books in your house growing up, take one step forward.
If you ever felt unsafe because of your sexual orientation, take one step back.
If you believe that you were denied employment because of your race, gender, or ethnicity, take 1 step back.
If you believe that you were paid less because of your race, gender, or ethnicity, take one step back.
If you were ever stopped or questioned by the police because of your race, take one step back.
If you have ever felt uncomfortable about a joke directed at your gender, take one step back.
If you can show affection for your romantic partner in public without fear of ridicule or violence, please take one step forward.
If you were embarrassed about your clothes or house while growing up, take one step back.
If your parents or guardians attended college, take one step forward.
If you were raised in an area with crime and drug activity, take one step back.
If you have tried to change your speech or mannerisms to gain credibility, take one step back.
If you are able to move through the world without fear of sexual assault, take one step forward.
If you can legally marry the person you love, take one step forward.
If you were sexually active with several people and it would improve your social reputation in other people’s eyes, take 1 step forward.
If you are reasonably sure that you will not be denied access to jobs or political resources because of your gender, take one step forward.
If you are able to be drive carelessly without someone attributing it to your gender, take one step forward.
If you are relatively sure you can enter a store without being followed, take one step forward.
If you are reasonably sure you would be hired based on your ability and qualifications, take one step forward.
If your family automatically expected you to attend college, take one step forward.
If you have ever traveled outside the United States, take one step forward.
If your parents worked nights and weekends to support your family, take one step backward.
If you can buy new clothes or go out to dinner when you want to, take one step forward.
If you get time off for your religious holidays, take one step forward.
If you have a foreign accent, take one step backward.
If you can walk alone at any time of day or night in Saratoga without thinking about safety, take one step forward.
If you went to galleries, museums, and plays with your family, take one step forward.
If you attended private school or summer camp, take one step forward.
If you were raised in a single-parent household, take one step backward.
If you studied the culture of your ancestors in elementary school, take one step forward.
If members of your gender are portrayed on TV in degrading roles, take one step backward.
If you have been a victim of sexual harassment, take one step backward.
If you have been a victim of violence because of your race, gender, class, or sexual orientation, take one step back.
If you ever went on a family vacation, take one step forward.
If you have ever had a maid, gardener, or cleaning service, take one step forward.
If you can walk past a construction site without being looked up and down or catcalled at, take one step forward.
This exercise is about privilege. Every statement addresses some small privilege that is based on gender, race, ethnicity, class, or sexual orientation. The small statements in this exercise have added up to divide people into different locations in this room. Similarly, small privileges in society place individuals in different places in society.
Interestingly, privilege tends to be invisible to those who are privileged. That is, when we receive privilege based on race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other factor, we tend to not recognize the boosts in position that accumulate over time from those privileges.
The point of this exercise is not to make any of us embarrassed about the privileges we have received, but to make all of us aware of how privilege based on gender, race, etc function. Whether we are highly privileged, moderately privileged or lack privilege, it is possible to behave in ways that level the playing field for everyone.
IMPORTANT: This exercise can be very triggering, so do not do this activity unless you are sure you have plenty of time to debrief and reflect what individuals experienced during the privilege walk.
But if you don’t answer to their expectations they accuse you of lying
I guess all the poor whites from the Oklahoma dust bowl
(see, the Grapes of Wrath) must therefore have been
permanently set back by their lack of privilege...
True: because they profile and stereotype just like they say the despise.
That list is insane. It is designed to engender bitterness, envy, dispair, and resentment.
It is totaly against human achievement.
It is one of the most destructive mental constructs that I have seen, but that seems to be its purpose.
Maybe it's because my parents didn't spend their money on Ripple and Blunts.
About halfway through that list I had advanced sufficiently to exit the empty room, traverse the hallway, and exit the building.
One has six kids and three either have graduated college or are attending (two are in high school or junior high) because their mom is all about them getting an education and learning how to be productive.
The other has three kids and she has chosen to live with losers rather than raise her kids properly - and the mom with six kids ended up raising hers as well, but the damage was already done to them.
Same starting point, different results.
It isn't about privilege in this country - ANYONE can better themselves. But these nitwits expect it to be handed to them.
We could start our own welfare privilege list...
BTW, the very idea that anyone with more than 50 books in their house shows this original list was put together by an illiterate. Libraries periodically will give away books and Goodwill Stores are overflowing with books. Books by the basketful can be had for $1 each. That's likely less than many of the so-called "unprivileged" spend on cable TV.
Yet leftists continue to be hostile toward social mobility. Anyone who is considered to be a member of a perceived “victim class” who works to improve himself/herself is labeled a class traitor. Thus the woman who pushed her children through college is a “coconut”. Brown on the outside but white on the inside. Which means that she refuses to accept the power of the Left, which then makes her a problem.
My parents made choices that led to my white privilege. I did the same for my children.
On the subject of books, I like the feel of a good book in my hands. I like turning the pages, chasing a great story from cover to cover. I especially like not having to quit reading because the battery died.
This is an exercise at the University of Michigan done at the student union. It is a very destructive exercise and immediately divides the students against themselves. Destroys...destroys self esteem of ALL who are involved in the exercise.
The left stole the idea of self-esteem and convoluted to mean everyone has to win. Self-esteem isn't built on 'winning' or participation ribbons, or being rich or poor, black or white, it has do with being able to get back up and dust yourself off and get on with living a productive life. Not this destructive tear the other person apart cr...!
Think about this: what would this country be like if there hadn’t been white Europeans? Would there even be an America? How would all the lazy people here get fed without this country?
What if Atlas shrugs?
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