30+ Examples of Middle-to-Upper Class Privilege

by Sam Killermann · 54 comments

in Privilege Lists,Social Justice

The Rainy Class Comic

Following is a list of middle-to-upper class privileges.  If you are a member of the middle class or upper class economic groups (or, in some cases, perceived to be) listed below are benefits that may be granted to you based on your group membership — benefits not granted to folks in the lower class.  The goal of the list is to help folks who have access to these privileges be more cognizant of their privilege, encouraging better understanding of class-based difference in our society.

  1. Politicians pay attention to your class, and fight for your vote in election seasons.
  2. You can advocate for your class to politicians and not have to worry about being seen as looking for a handout.
  3. You can readily find accurate (or non-caricatured) examples of members your class depicted in films, television, and other media.
  4. New products are designed and marketed with your social class in mind.
  5. If you see something advertised that you really want, you will buy it.
  6. You can swear (or commit a crime) without people attributing it to the low morals of your class.
  7. If you find yourself in a legally perilous situation, you can hire an attorney to ensure your case is heard justly.
  8. You can talk with your mouth full and not have people attribute this to the uncivilized nature of your social class.
  9. You can attend a “fancy” dinner without apprehension of doing something wrong or embarrassing the hosts.
  10. You understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy food, and can choose to eat healthy food if you wish.
  11. You can walk around your neighborhood at night without legitimate concern for your safety.
  12. In the case of medical emergency, you won’t have to decide against visiting a doctor or the hospital due to economic reasons.
  13. You have visited a doctor for a “check-up.”
  14. Your eyesight, smile, and general health aren’t inhibited by your income.
  15. If you become sick, you can seek medical care immediately and not just “hope it goes away.”
  16. If you choose to wear hand-me-down or second-hand clothing, this won’t be attributed to your social class, and may actually be considered stylish.
  17. You can update your wardrobe with new clothes to match current styles and trends.
  18. As a kid, you were able to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities (field trips, clubs, etc.) with school friends.
  19. As a kid, your friends’ parents allowed your friends to play and sleep over at your house.
  20. You don’t have to worry that teachers or employers will treat you poorly or have negative expectations of you because of your class.
  21. The schools you went to as a kid had updated textbooks, computers, and a solid faculty.
  22. Growing up, college was an expectation of you (whether you chose to go or not), not a lofty dream.
  23. Your decision to go or not to go to college wasn’t based entirely on financial determinants.
  24. People aren’t surprised if they realize you are intelligent, hard-working, or honest.
  25. An annual raise in pay at your job is measured in dollars, not cents.
  26. You’ve likely never looked into a paycheck advance business (e.g., “Check Into Cash”), and have definitely never used one.
  27. You are never asked to speak for all members of your class.
  28. Whenever you’ve moved out of your home it has been voluntary, and you had another home to move into.
  29. It’s your choice to own a reliable car or to choose other means of transportation.
  30. Regardless of the season, you can count on being able to fall asleep in a room with a comfortable temperature.
  31. When you flip a light switch in your house, you don’t have to wonder if the light will come on (or if your utilities have been terminated).
  32. People don’t assume you’ve made an active choice to be in your social class, but instead assume you’re working to improve it.
  33. The “dream” of a house, a healthy family, and a solid career isn’t a dream at all, but simply a plan.
  34. People do not assume based on the dialect you grew up speaking that you are unintelligent or lazy.
  35. When you choose to use variants of language (e.g., slang terms) people chalk them up to plasticity in the language (rather than assuming your particular dialectical variants deserve redicule and punishment).
  36. [leave a comment below with another example!]

Tagged as: class, list, privilege

Written by Sam Killermann

Sam is a writer and performer who uses those skills as an ally to advance progress in the realms of LGBT equality and social justice. He tours the country speaking to college students about stereotypes, prejudice, and oppression, and writes for this site when he's at home in Austin, TX.

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  • Thoughtexperimenter

    People do not assume based on the dialect you grew up speaking that you are unintelligent or lazy. Also, when you use variants of language people chalk them up to plasticity in the language (rather than assuming your particular dialectical variants deserve redicule and punishment)

    • http://samuelkillermann.com/ Samuel Killermann

      Ah, thoughtful additions. I’ll add them in now. Thanks for contributing!

    • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

      They do if you’re middle class but still “a hick”.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

      Or a non-Anglo-Saxon person with an ethnic slang.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sarah-Hall/731841850 Sarah Hall

      That’s…not entirely true…I am middling to upper middle class, and I chose to learn a whole new accent because people mocked me so much for my old one. It sounded ‘lazy’ and ‘arrogant’, etc. etc. My vocabulary was ‘inappropriate’ and ‘cheap’.

  • Eliza

    Oh my gosh, I’ve never actually thought about class privilege,.I just assumed that all the listed privileges I enjoy was just a part of life, as a Pagan Asian-American transgirl living in this society, it’s very easy to forget how good I actually have it compared to members of the lower class.

    • Ella

      ….I had better be reading this wrong, because you have it better than a poor trans person if you’re upper class. Just to start, you can actually afford the medication and the surgery (if desired) that’s required to transition, as well as the several hundred dollars it takes to request a legal name change.

      • Eliza

        My family is working class actually (lower middle? We live in a small condo and we’re not exactly rich, I’m not sure… Both my parents work in factories and our annual income is about $30000 acording to my mom)… we’re just not lower class or poor. I haven’t started blockers yet, but my parents are trying to save some cash, and I constantly feel guilty for it since we fight a lot and I don’t listen to them. Yes, I’m a spoiled 14-year-old brat, I’m not proud of it.

        The only reason why I’m giving you my life story is because I don’t want you to assume anything about me or my family again. My post simply mentioned that as a teenage brat I was so caught up in my own self-pity that I didn’t open my eyes and realize that things could be a lot worse. (Yeah, I know, I should’ve realized this a long time ago, but I’m not exactly mature either)

      • Eliza

        and yes, I’m pretty sure you read it wrong…

    • Maiya78

      ha, me too, in many ways: MAAB pre-transition 2F, pagan (eclectic), gynecophilic, polyamorous (though, not actually in any relationships at this moment). I’m also very white and middle class and Western (specifically, American), so it’s interesting to read these. There were a few in this one that somewhat surprised me, interesting because many of my best friends are quite a bit below middle-class, and from their stories I usually seem to have a pretty decent concept of a lot of the classism they experience.

  • Hillary Carter

    I’m not sure talking with your mouth full is exactly a privilege. I mean, I get the spirit of this one, you can have manner fails. While it might not get chalked up to your class, people will still attribute it to your lack thereof.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joylbutler Joy Butler

    When you need to travel to work or run errands or visit your doctor, you do not have to do much planning, because you can jump in your car (or on your bike) and go. You do not have to check bus schedules, beg for rides, plan time to walk, or worry about the vehicle you do have breaking down on the way to your destination.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

      Middle class people in rural areas DO have to make plans to visit their doctor, because usually they don’t have a “THEIR doctor”, they have a phone directory and a list of names of possible doctors for this one instance. And then the closest doctor’s office or hospital might be hours away at best.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joylbutler Joy Butler

    When you apply for jobs, choose a school to attend, a doctor to see, or pick stores at which to shop, you have a large distance range from which to select. You do not have to limit yourself to those you can access from bus and subway routes, or can reach by walking/bike.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Heather-Jones/100000158863504 Heather Jones

      People assume that you live in walking/biking distance of anything, or have access to buses and subways.

      • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

        Or they assume that you have close range options at all, and that traveling to shop is a luxury.
        In fact, for rural people, traveling to shop is sometimes a necessity (if you can afford to travel). If you can’t travel, you have to make do by making things yourself with the materials you have, instead of buying them (I haven’t bought any new clothes in probably three years?)

  • Guest

    You can smile broadly in public, knowing that your parents (or you) paid for good dental care, and as a result, your teeth are pearly-white and straight.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joylbutler Joy Butler

    When you call the police or a cab, either will come quickly to your neighborhood.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Heather-Jones/100000158863504 Heather Jones

      Neighborhood? A lot of poor people live in country areas which effectively aren’t served by emergency services (police/ambulance might get there in an hour) and where cabs are non-existent.

      • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

        A lot of middle class people living in rural areas have this problem too. It’s not JUST those poor ol’ hicks who can’t afford to put corn on the table. *point at middle class rural self*

  • http://www.facebook.com/devian.michaels Devian Michaels

    You aren’t stopped and questioned randomly by police just for walking down to the cornerstore.

    You don’t have to carry a weapon just to pick up groceries.

    If you see lights outside your window, you can assume it’s headlights and not the prowler who has attempted to break into your house 5 times before.

    If your house gets broken into, the police don’t assume you just sold things for drug money.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

      You can be a middle class person in a rural area and be constantly disrespected by police. Any time a big police raid happened in my hometown, because it was a rural town, people in outlying districts would get nervous that we had gone all Children Of The Corn or some other hick massacre stereotype. In actuality, it was usually just that the state troopers had been tipped off about a bunch of marijuana or moonshine.
      A lot of drug-related, laziness related, and hooligan related stereotypes were applied to us by the State Troopers. Luckily, our local departments were usually boonies like us and weren’t quite so prejudiced, but we really hated dealing with state troopers.

      If there were lights outside my window, I would have been worried about a house or forest fire, and that we wouldn’t be able to get help in enough time.

  • http://brutereason.net/ Miriam Mogilevsky

    You know how to do things like applying to college.

    You can get a loan or a credit card.

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  • Emily

    I think that by pointing out the privileges that others have (Christians, cisgender, upper-middle class, hetero, etc) you are inviting an atmosphere of self pity and bitterness, as opposed to one of empowerment. In my opinion, the entire point is to point out not our differences, but our similarities. You recognize this in another article. The recognition of common humanity, as well as the promotion of positivity will promote change. These lists just make me sad and angry, and not for the right reasons. I really love your site, but not these lists.

    • McKenzie Cameron

      i think that’s only the case when you aren’t a member of the community that the article is focusing on. Personally, this list made me think. “The “dream” of a house, a healthy family, and a solid career isn’t a dream at all, but simply a plan.” especially hit home. Perhaps it breeds self-pity for people who aren’t middle and upper-class, but it gave me an opportunity to really reflect on what I take for granted daily. That was the intended purpose of this article.

    • Angel Hime

      This list isn’t really intended for poor people like myself. Sure, I could read it and get jealous, self-pitying, and angry… but instead I get excited, and hopeful. I think some middle-to-upper class people will look at this, and realize the privileges they have. Maybe the ones who think they have it so bad will look at those who are poor, and stop viewing them as “lazy” “do nothings”, as “sponges”/”leeches”, etc. Maybe they’ll start seeing us as just humans who are struggling to have a better life. (Although, I agree the list seems aimed more at people in the city. Here in the country, we definitely know what vegetables are, because sometimes we have to grow our own food to save money. DIY isn’t a hobby for a lot of us, it’s a means of survival.)

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  • Kelly G

    This is fascinating to read from the perspective of someone who grew up working class/not middle class/more financially precarious and is now middle class (according to most markers). I had noticed that some of my privileges changed (the primary reason for pushing upward!)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Heather-Jones/100000158863504 Heather Jones

    Many of the items here pertain exclusively to life as an *urban* poor person, and do not pertain at all to the lives of the rural poor. Rich city elites have an unfortunate habit of forgetting entirely about rural folks–out of sight, out of mind, I guess. Forgetting, erasing. It’s what privilege is about, I guess.

    Here’s one for you: my country relatives could not flush their toilets for 2 years because of the drought. (They do not get city water in a nice pipe. They have to find their own.)

    # 10 is just flat-out offensive. I guarantee you that we have always known what a vegetable is, because we grow them in our gardens.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

      Thank you Heather! Coming from a rural area myself, this means a lot to me. Another issue is that a lot of middle class people from suburban and rural areas are dealing with the same issues that poor people are dealing with in the cities (such as lack of access to health care, safety, teachers, and other resources), yet we also have many of OUR OWN issues too.
      For instance, most rural people, whether poor or middle class, likely do not get benefits with their jobs.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

      Also, if you live in a rural area and a natural disaster strikes your region, it is the rural areas that are always the last to get help.
      Whether upper, middle, or lower class, if you are urban or suburban, you fair MUCH better than any class of rural person in this.

  • ann

    #38 You can read. Read and understand almost all texts – even juridical texts to sign. When not, you know somebody who can explain what are the consequences.
    [English is not my native language. Be understanding.]

    • ann

      - You know how to read the hour on your watch.
      You can count. You can read. You kow how to phone and present yourself by phone. [Maybe that is true in most country now.] You are able to write an official lettre by yourself.
      - You have the Internet – to see job offer, send résumé and cover letter when you search for a job.
      - You have current water and electricity – and payed. And then youy don’t suffer from cold during winter.

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  • Erika

    I guess this is what all my poor friends were talking about when they said they were “jealous”

  • Tala

    Wow, even with the tough economic times I am reminded how blessed I am. So now that I know how privileged I am what can I do with it? However I have one parent who is disabled and one who is a public school teacher. I tend to buy a lot of my own items and food along with paying for a portion of the bills. Often we leave off the AC or heat in the season because it costs to much.

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  • Emily

    I’m … lower middle class or upper working class. As I read through this list, I found it interesting that I recognized myself as privileged in some of these ways, but not all. Classism seems … fluid isn’t the right word… non-binary, and more so than most other sources of privilege/oppression systems.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

      Exactly.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kris.raleigh.9 Kris Raleigh

    Half of these problems are now middle class problems too.
    I haven’t seen a dentist or eye doctor in years, I haven’t had a check up in years, when I get sick I do end up simply hoping it will go away. No matter where I go, “:middle class” suburban area, or “poor” city area, I’m afraid to walk all the streets at night because I have a vagina.
    My highschool HAD updated equipment, books, and a solid faculty at one point, before the recession hit and loads of teachers got laid off.
    I’m a student now, and yes, I was expected to go to college. But I also often go without food AT ALL, let alone healthy food, and I’m swimming in debt that I can’t get out of.

    Because I go to a state university, and not a “real university”, my slang DOES get judged on a regular basis by “more intelligent people.

    In fact,. my slang gets judged in middle-class and mixed company.
    This is especially because I come from a rural area and speak with an old vernacular slang with Irish and Polish ethnic colloquialisms that most people aren’t used to. I’ve only managed to learn code switching in the last three to four years, and I still often slip up, especially in the company of friends who still sometimes judge me.

    All this, yet my father works a job that qualifies him in the middle-income tax bracket.
    I go to a SUNY school in a small-town college that nobody’s heard of. We can’t afford many basic health coverages, and my sister is a type-1 diabetic. Because my father is a seaway pilot and is labeled “self-employed” even though he has a boss, our family gets no benefits. In the event of a serious family emergency, he will likely be unable to be there because he doesn’t get paid leave.

    I could go on and on…

    This is the most ignorant post I’ve seen in a long time.

  • Erika

    This is really en lighting for someone like me who has lived upper class all there life. Makes you appreciate what you are lucky to have. I mean really I didn’t know what or how food-stamps work until I was 21 and behind someone at a grocery store.

  • Ayn Rand

    All of this is marxist bullshit. Get a job.

  • LaFenix

    When you get even a small hole in your clothes, you just throw them out because you already have new ones. I’ve felt the social pressures on both sides of this. This is actually quite true….and hurtful.

  • Elyse

    Wow….. I can’t believe how many people are responding so defensively to this. Apparently a lot of people who have prided themselves on saying, “I’m socially and politically aware!” are myopic and conceited enough that they won’t even concede the simple fact that they are PRIVILEGED on certain accounts relative to others. Accept it, don’t take it for granted, do something about it.

  • Eli

    This article is poorly conceived. The upper middle class being able to pay for things is not ‘privilege’ anymore than a poor person who chooses to have a job and thus can buy more groceries is privileged over a poor person who does not work. When you ‘earn’ money, by definition, its uses are the opposite of privilege.

    The term ‘privilege’, as it is used in social context, refers to unearned advantages. Anything or any solution that is had due to the ability to pay for it, by definition, is earned and therefore not ‘privilege’.

    Other points that you make are thoroughly flawed. I could rebut most of them, but here are a few:

    1. Anyone can go to college because everyone is eligible for Stafford loans. The government has made cost a non-factor, as long as you go to an affordable school like I did and do. I have never received a dime of money outside of what the government has loaned me. Not for food nor rent. I’m in the same exact college tuition finance situation as every poor person in this country. We all have to pay back the loans. Deal with it. The difference is I don’t whine, complain, nor do I feel entitled to more than my parents were not able to give me. I will succeed due to my hard work in school and, with a little luck, I will be able to make it a little easier on my kids. However, they will not be ‘privileged’ either. Whatever they get will be a glad gift of the hard work of their father who chooses to earn resources and spend them on his progeny.

    2. Everyone who asks politicians for financial consideration is seen as asking for handouts.

    3. Everyone can find non-caricatured portrayals of their class in the media, as well as caricatured portrayals. That’s a fact.

    4. Basic manners are all it takes to get through any dinner, anywhere.

    5. People within a neighborhood can all choose not to commit crimes and therefore make their neighborhood safe to walk in.

    4. Everyone who talks with their mouth full is seen as uncivilized.

    5. There is no such thing as ‘plasticity in language’ when referring to dialect use and slang. You are incorrectly using this neurobiology term when you apply it to language use. The fact is that every American can learn the Standard American English ‘dialect’ and choose to speak it. Using slang and differing dialects, for adults, is a choice. Pure and simple. Someone who would rather speak French in an American work environment is also not given a pass on speaking SAE. Either one learns the basic language of the workplace or they are justly eliminated from employment consideration because of their inability to effectively communicate. Effective communication with co-workers is an essential and basic requirement of employment. If anyone who speaks any dialect of American English is confused, they need only turn on the television for all of the free SAE demonstration that they can handle.

    • Jeff Kempka

      Everyone of your points is based on the “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” myth, which is an oversimplification of life/society. Hard work and more work make up a small piece of the success equation. Privilege is NOT always earned. The children of the rich will enjoy benefits they did not earn and will be propelled towards the “finish line” faster and with less effort than working class and poor kids. And just like you they will scoff at the “whining” of those less fortunate. Tell people to get off their butts, work harder and make better choices is ignorant at best and arrogant at worst.

  • Estephani

    Privilege of middle to upper class is driving an older car and and not judged too,poor to buy a better car. Lower, working class often drive,expensive, newer cars to offset the truth to,society at large that they live in overcrowded apartments or still live with their parents in their thirties and forties in their childhood bedroom that they share with their own child(ren).

  • maiaminna

    Good list, but the schools I went to as a kid didn’t have computers because of my age, not my class (you ageist!) :D

  • Hiya

    cool

  • http://www.facebook.com/marlowe.clark.1 Marlowe Clark

    …I hope you realize that even the upper middle class is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay far into the bottom 99%.

  • David

    According to this, I’m in the lower class. Great. Just some more proof of what I have secretly always known but was always too afraid to admit. I’m trash, I’m poor, I have no money, and all of my dreams are just that, dreams.

  • http://www.facebook.com/helen.acosta.142035 Helen Acosta

    Those 2 houses are often in the same neighborhood if it is a traditional neighborhood built before 1940. I live in a little 1100 square foot cottage just a few blocks from a house that looks almost exactly like that big white mansion in the picture.

    Where ever there were neighborhoods built during the railroad boom you’ll find that unique mix of mansions, small homes, multi-unit rentals and “mother-in-law” units. These traditional neighborhoods survive economic ups and downs with greater elasticity than the suburbs because they are heterogeneous. Diversity equals economic elasticity :)