CHLSS

  • Donate
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Adoption
    • Infant Adoption
    • A father and son created through foster care adoption embrace.Foster Care Adoption
    • Young girl from China smiles at the camera.International Adoption
    • Close
  • Foster Care
    • Three siblings in foster care smile in the part with their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders.Foster Care
    • An African American single woman wraps her arms around two brothers she adopted from foster care.Foster Care Adoption
    • Close
  • Pregnancy Services
    • Birth parents and adoptive parents smile with son.Open Adoption
    • Parenting
    • A father holds a football for his infant child.Birth Fathers
    • Happy woman and man waiting to adopt a child.Waiting Family Profiles
    • Close
  • Post Adoption
    • Domestic Post Adoption
    • International Post Adoption
    • Post Adoption Resources
    • A teen boy who was adopted from Korea as an infant smiles against a stone wall.Post Placement Reports
    • Close
  • Education & Events
    • An Ethiopian adoptee and her sister smile and hug.Education & Events Calendar
    • A woman attends a webinar.Recorded Webinars
    • Close
  • About Us
    • Mission & History
    • Leadership
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
    • Close
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Home / Blog / Adoptee Reflections / I Took a Privilege Walk: Here’s what I thought

I Took a Privilege Walk: Here’s what I thought

March 2, 2017 by Guest Contributor

A close up of the feet of two adults as they step forward during a privilege walk exercise.In early February, I participated in a ‘Privilege Walk:’ an exercise that forces examination of individuals’ levels of privilege or disadvantages in life. I had just finished speaking on an adoption panel and Sue Orban, the panel moderator asked all of us, panel members and audience, to partake.

Each question requires the responder to step forward or backward depending on their answer. It’s popular because it shows the intermingling of privilege and benefits that one experiences, but that a person doesn’t think about consciously or are so culturally ingrained they’re unnoticeable. In other words, everyday advantages that we don’t realize we have.

Here’s a Privilege Walk video.

The value is in both examining one’s opportunities in relationship to those around you and to think about your own privilege, in a variety of scenarios and ways that did not occur previously. Questions can be tailored specifically regarding, gender, class, sexual orientation, mental wellness, and physical ability. For our drill, the questions combined some of those above, plus specific adoption-related ones as well.

At its conclusion, you realize, everyone experiences both privilege and marginalization. The questions are based on Peggy McIntosh’s book, White Privilege: Unpacking the Knapsack.

It’s a non-confrontational method analyzing inequalities along a host of social, ethnic and cultural normative spectrums.

Everyone begins on the same line and you notice, though you may think you were similar to the person next to you, their life experiences may be starkly different.

Here are some of the questions;

  • I can choose bandages in flesh color that more or less match my skin.
  • The culture of my ancestors was studied in elementary school.
  • I usually see members of my race and ethnic group portrayed on television in a positive light.
  • I or my ancestors made a choice to come to America.
  • I have never spent any time in a foster home, orphanage, or homeless.
  • When I go to the doctor, I can share my family’s medical history.
  • I am aware of all my siblings.
  • I can shop in any store without fear of being followed.
  • I received vaccinations that were timely and stored properly.
  • I was born into a family with access to medical care.

For our version of this exercise, we used a game board and very small cut-outs that looked like feet that we moved up and down on a grid, all starting from the same point.

Sue asked us questions both about ourselves and our children or the ones people were adopting. We moved the two different feet on the ladder forward and backward according to our answers.

Since this was an adoptee panel, the purpose was to see the privilege that the adopting family member has, which their future child does not.

I answered questions for myself and Sonali. At the end of the exercise, I saw a clear delineation between my experiences and all the privileges in her life thus far. If Sasmita had been doing the drill, the differences would have been even greater.

Unfortunately, conducting it this way, I did not experience one its core objectives, seeing my privilege or marginalization compared to people next to me, but I tasted the concept.

It was a good reflective exercise contemplating the many advantages and disadvantages I have as an Indian adoptee growing up in the United States. I am privileged because even though I’m brown-skinned, I was raised in a white, middle-class neighborhood, and a lot of their privilege extends to me.

For an everyday example, take Band-Aids. I’d guess that nearly all non-minorities I know never thought twice about a Band-Aid’s color. But for myself and minorities, it’s always annoyed us that they never blended with our skin. You always know if I’m wearing a Band-Aid because it contrasts with my skin.

One drawback is the questions were black and white, there was no room for a gray area. The answers to some of the questions, however, are complicated. I understand the reason for the straightforward format, but it makes answering some questions more difficult. There was a question about wanting for food, I answered what I remember. But what I don’t know is whether I lacked food before my adoption. I could only answer from the time I was adopted and onwards.

And not all the answers have to do with privilege on their face. Some were based on proper planning or parental choices. But keep digging deeper and choice itself for many is a privilege.

Most of the benefits we receive are invisible, but they are no less powerful or helpful in our lives. The Privilege Walk drill, helped me view them afresh.

About the Author: A.J. Bryant is an Indian adult adoptee who blogs about adoption, identity, race and being a world citizen. This post was originally published on his blog.

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPrintFriendly

Filed Under: Adoptee Reflections, Foster Care Adoption, Infant Adoption, International Adoption, News

Meet Waiting Children

View Children

Help a Child Thrive

Contribute Today

Main Office

1605 Eustis Street
Saint Paul, MN 55108
651.646.7771
800.952.9302
[email protected]

Maryland Office

15800 Crabbs Branch Way Suite 300
Rockville, MD 20855
301.562.6500
[email protected]

Virginia Office

4101 Chain Bridge Road Suite 301
Fairfax, VA 22030
703.214.5533
[email protected]

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Charities Review Council
Standards_Seal_BLACK_WEB
Charities Review Council Seal 2022
coa-logo
NCFA Member Seal_
IAAME
Intercountry Adoption Accreditation and Approval
Human Rights Campaign seal

© 2023 Children's Home Society and Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. All Rights Reserved.

Terms & Conditions Privacy policy Developed by Vivid Image Staff Login