> Saying I am a “child of privilege” discounts everything I have done to overcome my past. Saying that everybody in the class is a “child of privilege” implies people like me don’t belong or can’t make it. I would rather be known as a reformed prostitute and alcoholic/drug addict than a “child of privilege.”

I hear what you are saying and I think it might well be the case that there is a little scale of degree and that you and he were thinking on different portions of it.

I hear where you are coming from with respect to having a sucky upbringing. i lived in a social welfare home for a while and i have some understanding of struggling with drug and alchohol issues...

i'm not sure whether you have heard this said...

that the poorest in the USA are richer than the majority of the population in the world.

that the availability of drinking water makes you privaledged.

and so on.

matter of degree. i get what you mean... but i really do think that if you consider the child born with AIDS who doesn't have clean drinking water or anything to eat then it might be a little easier to take the point that you did indeed have a privaledged upbringing in some respects (though perhaps not all).

and so it can be true at the very same time that sure you are a reformed drug addict and pro but you are also privaledged in certain respects. though there are salient people (especially in a university setting) who are of course more privaledged than us (in some respects).