Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change!
228
Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change!
228Paperback
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Overview
The fight for economic justice can draw stark battle lines, with the fight portrayed simplistically as Us versus Them, with the rich in the role of "Them." So where does that leave young people with wealth who believe in social change?
Afraid of being branded the enemy, yet deeply committed to social justice, they're left in a confusing no-man's land. This conflict can lead most young people with wealth to keep their privilege hidden, making it impossible for them to bring their resources, access, and connections to the struggle for social change. Coauthored by Karen Pittelman, who dissolved her $3 million trust fund to cofound a foundation for low-income women activists, Classified is a resource guide for people with class privilege who are tired of cover-ups and ready to figure out how their privilege really works. Complete with comics, exercises, and personal stories, this book gives readers the tools they need to put their privilege to work for social change.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781933368085 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Catapult |
| Publication date: | 12/23/2005 |
| Pages: | 228 |
| Sales rank: | 613,945 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.65(d) |
About the Author
Resource Generation is a national non-profit organization that works with young people with financial wealth who believe in social change. Since 1996, the organization has offered a variety of programs educating young funders about social change philanthropy. RG is located in New York City and led by a cross-class board and staff.
Read an Excerpt
Classified
By Karen Pittelman
Soft Skull Press
Copyright © 2006 Karen PittelmanAll right reserved.
ISBN: 1-933368-08-X
Chapter One
This Book Probably Isn't for Me
There's one main thing that everyone who calls, e-mails or walks through Resource Generation's door has in common. At one time or another they say, "I'm not sure if this is actually for me." Part of the reason why everyone is so unsure is that the heading "young people with wealth" covers a huge range of experiences. It can be hard to imagine that anyone else has gone through something even remotely similar. For example:
some people ...
* have wealth that comes from inheritance.
* have wealth that comes from earnings.
* share their life with someone who has wealth.
* will inherit money later, but don't have any now.
* grew up in a wealthy family, but will never inherit any money.
* are part of a family foundation.
* have wealth that comes from being famous or being a public figure.
* have a wealthy side of the family and a not-wealthy side of the family.
* were wealthy in another country before they came to the U.S.
* came to the U.S. from another country without any money and made money here.
* have had wealth come into their lives suddenly, even won the lottery.
* have wealth that isn't sudden, but it's a relatively new thing.
* havewealth that is generations-old.
* inherited wealth after the death of someone close to them.
* have wealth from a legal settlement because of an accident, a disability or a death.
* have more wealth than their family.
* have less wealth than their family.
* inherited wealth without any strings attached.
* inherited wealth with some serious strings attached.
* had money and then lost it.
* have money because they are from famous families.
* have money because they are from infamous families.
* feel like $10,000 is enormous wealth.
* feel like $1,000,000 is enormous wealth.
* feel like $1,000,000,000 is enormous wealth.
* have a lot of money and don't know it yet.
* have known they had a lot of money for a long time.
we're looking for some really different things
So there's definitely not one standard experience that all young people with wealth have. And there's certainly no one standard experience that all young people with wealth are looking for-which is another big reason most everyone reading this right now is thinking this book probably isn't for them.
Unfortunately, the book you hold in your hands will never be exactly like what each of us is looking for. This can be disappointing and extremely frustrating, but at least you'll know that everyone else reading is probably feeling that way too!
identity and wealth
And no, it's not just white, straight, Christian men who have wealth either, so please check all assumptions at the door. Discrimination is obviously a huge factor in the unjust distribution of resources and the reason why the majority of people who control wealth in this country aren't a very diverse bunch. For example, black families possess only 10 cents for every dollar of wealth held by white families. However, that doesn't mean there is no diversity among young people with wealth, or that experiences with discrimination can't exist alongside experiences with wealth.
What it means to have wealth is very much defined by questions of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, ability and sexual identity. The cultural traditions and communities we are a part of are also central to shaping the ways we understand anything that happens in our lives, including having money. There really never is a room of "young people with wealth who believe in social change" where everyone has the same way of seeing or being.
a common experience of privilege
While we are definitely a diverse crowd, this book focuses on one thing we all have in common: privilege. Basically, privilege means getting an unfair special advantage because you are part of a group. Discrimination, on the other hand, means getting an unfair disadvantage. Having an experience of privilege in common is very different from having an experience of discrimination in common, because the two things work in completely opposite ways.
Discrimination erases individual identity. It says that everyone in the group is the same and so deserves to be treated the same, regardless of how cruel or inhumane that treatment is.
Privilege erases group identity. It says that everyone in the group is a unique and special individual, and that it's their uniqueness that entitles them to preferential treatment.
Dealing with discrimination requires reclaiming individual identity. Understanding privilege, on the other hand, requires figuring out all the ways that we're not unique individuals. We have to start looking for the unfair advantages we get just because we belong to a group, not because of anything we did on our own.
This doesn't mean we have to lose who we are. But unless we learn to see the ways privilege works in our lives, we may be helping keep the unjust distribution of resources in place without realizing it-despite our social change actions and beliefs. Despite the beauty and diversity of experience, culture and tradition in our lives. Despite who we are as individuals.
"A friend I'd known for a couple years said, 'Since your family has a lot of money now, I'm sure you must have a lot of white friends. Unless you're keeping it real.' He was assuming that wealthy people are only white people, so if you're wealthy, you're going to associate with only wealthy white people. I understood why it was easier for him to assume that a white person would be wealthy and that a black person would not be-historically, with the horrific treatment of not just African Americans but Native Americans and so many other minorities in the U.S. And when you see wealthy people in the media, more than likely it's going to be a white male. Still, the whole 'keeping it real' thing ... for me to not still have my black friends-he was implying I would have sold out on everything I was before I had money."-Dawn
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Classified by Karen Pittelman Copyright © 2006 by Karen Pittelman. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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