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The way I hear the term "privileged" used, it almost sounds equivalent to having good parents. So if your parents push you to excel and make sacrifices to give you a good life then you need to "check your privilege." What a stupid concept, and how anti-American. Yea, let's be like 3rd world countries where parents laze around and eat while their kids starve. Liberal paradise. Don't you dare try to make your kids successful!
I may not speak for all of those that lean left, but when I hear the term privileged in the context that you're referring to...
I think of it as growing up in an exceptional public school district, (or with parents who can afford private), access and money for extra curricular sports and activities, living in a safe community and neighborhood where gang violence, drug dealing and drive by shootings aren't commonplace, a college fund and family money to fall back on, etc, etc.
So yes, in my eyes it does have a lot to do with the parenting, but privilege, to me, also has a lot to do with how financially comfortable and stable the parents are, more so than if they're actively pushing their kids to excel.
Also, a child growing up in a poor neighborhood may have a parent working two minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, but still can't afford to move to a better school district or pay for music education or extracurricular sports for their child. He/she may want and desire all the best for their child, but growing up in a poor neighborhood in a failing school district, surrounded by gangs and violence, that child would never be considered privileged.
I think of it as growing up in an exceptional public school district, (or with parents who can afford private), access and money for extra curricular sports and activities, living in a safe community and neighborhood where gang violence, drug dealing and drive by shootings aren't commonplace, a college fund and family money to fall back on, etc, etc.
So yes, in my eyes it does have a lot to do with the parenting, but privilege, to me, also has a lot to do with how financially comfortable and stable the parents are, more so than if they're actively pushing their kids to excel.
I would agree with this. Means more than just having good parents.
Privileged means you are the beneficiary of affirmative action because of circumstances totally beyond your control. Extra points in America if you are white, male, and come from an upper middle class home or above, in that order. Those three things open more doors for you than any abilities you may have.
Also, a child growing up in a poor neighborhood may have a parent working two minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, but still can't afford to move to a better school district or pay for music education or extracurricular sports for their child. He/she may want and desire all the best for their child, but growing up in a poor neighborhood in a failing school district, surrounded by gangs and violence, that child would never be considered privileged.
And if conservative activists find a way to help "non-privileged' students escape the educational ghetto of the NEA-dominated public school system, the (pseudo-)"liberals" are the first, and loudest, to whine.
The way I hear the term "privileged" used, it almost sounds equivalent to having good parents. So if your parents push you to excel and make sacrifices to give you a good life then you need to "check your privilege." What a stupid concept, and how anti-American. Yea, let's be like 3rd world countries where parents laze around and eat while their kids starve. Liberal paradise. Don't you dare try to make your kids successful!
What's the motivation for targeting liberals with this question?
Privileged means you are the beneficiary of affirmative action because of circumstances totally beyond your control. Extra points in America if you are white, male, and come from an upper middle class home or above, in that order. Those three things open more doors for you than any abilities you may have.
Ethan Couch, the kid who claimed affluenza, that's privilege.
It seems that those with money play by a different set of rules, it just helps to have the "right" complexion, well to do parents, or go to a "better" school. It's seems overly simplistic, but also undeniable. Not saying that other kids can't get ahead, but the circumstances that you come from can certainly help.
I may not speak for all of those that lean left, but when I hear the term privileged in the context that you're referring to...
I think of it as growing up in an exceptional public school district, (or with parents who can afford private), access and money for extra curricular sports and activities, living in a safe community and neighborhood where gang violence, drug dealing and drive by shootings aren't commonplace, a college fund and family money to fall back on, etc, etc.
So yes, in my eyes it does have a lot to do with the parenting, but privilege, to me, also has a lot to do with how financially comfortable and stable the parents are, more so than if they're actively pushing their kids to excel.
But it also important how they GOT that privilege.
When you have one group that is economically held back with the use of unfair laws, economic and social discrimination and false criminal charges, while the other group is allowed to excel and prosper off of the sweat and earnings of the first group; or off illegal activities that are excused because you are in the majority, and when those advantages or disadvantages are propagated and extended throughout centuries, then that is privilege. And no matter how much you complain that "you didn't do it so you shouldn't have to account for it- or be culpable," you are still living with and taking advantage of or suffering from that system. That is inherited privilege.
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