Just a straight-up poll. Most people, of course, have some overlap in this area - they are privileged in some ways and oppressed in some others, but the only way a poll like this can be done is to force a binary choice, otherwise the polling wouldn’t work.
(“Privilege” and “oppression” completely defined as you see fit, for the purposes of the poll)
I’m a white, male, hetero-sexual American. You can’t get much more privileged than that.
I voted “privileged”. I’m relatively poor, but that’s not due to some outside force holding me back.
Sure you can. Being rich, good looking, having caring/loving parents, intelligent, tall, family with lot of connections, living in economically thriving area.
There are plenty of white, male, hetero-sexual American with completely crappy lives due to no fault of their own. It is not the end-all be-all of privilege.
Just last week there was a huge example of people conflating one type of privilege with another, when some of those same people had been saying for years that we should not be doing exactly what they did.
Well…I’m an older Hispanic male, so I guess a case could be made that I’m ‘oppressed’. However, I’m in the top 2-3% wrt income and assets, so…privileged? My kids are pretty much fully integrated into the US, go to or went to college, generally after a stint in the military first, and we live a solid upper middle class lifestyle and should be able to retire by 65 at the latest, assuming the world doesn’t end or we have some very bad luck.
This of course hasn’t been the case for my entire life, so I guess, um, I was oppressed when I was younger, threw off the shackles of my oppression (well, my parents really did) and became privileged, or maybe I’m one of the oppressors now? 
I think you’re overestimating what privilege is. Chances are the crappy life of a straight white male is still going to be a lot better than the crappy life of a gay black man or a Hispanic woman.
What are you referring to?
I’m not so sure it’s a binary choice like that. Seems to me that there are a lot of ways that someone could be oppressed or privileged, and they’re not necessarily exclusive.
I’m reminded of a friend of mine- white, upper middle class male with a STEM degree, a good job and a loving, smart and stable spouse. Sounds awfully privileged, right? He also happens to be gay. Do you think he’s oppressed now?
And I don’t think it’s like a points system either- straight +1, male +1, upper middle class +2, black -1, gay -1, etc… Mostly because that’s just absurd.
For starters, women get about 5 more years of life than men, on average, so that’s one bit of privilege they get that I don’t. I don’t think that makes me “oppressed” necessarily, but this is just an illustration of why trying to lump people into sweeping black-and-white categories of victims and oppressors doesn’t work well.
Sorry, but a rich, good looking, having caring/loving parents, intelligent, tall, family with a lot of connections, living in economically thriving area black guy still gets followed in a store and pulled over for “DWB”.
I don’t.
Not to derail the thread, but do cops really have the good-enough eyesight to spot which race/ethnicity a driver is, from behind the driver, when the driver is in the car, from a distance of perhaps dozens of yards behind?
For the driving-while-black theorists.
Both, quite seriously.
if I really really have to pick, I’m a lot more privileged than oppressed compared with the genuine teeming millions who are denizens of this world, and a bit more privileged than the average American citizen, so I’d have to pick “privileged”. But I’m on the wrong end of some those nasty categorical oppressions and they’ve defined my life to a large extent.
ETA: that is one of the things that intersectionality is about. The above is true for a lot more people than it isn’t. No one should assume the person they meet has no personal familiarity with oppression, nor kid themselves that they have privilege.
Even if that’s true, about 99% of the time getting pulled over is nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
Making it all (or even primarily) about race is stupid. Barack Obama / Tiger Woods / Oprah Winfrey are immensely more “privileged” than 99% of white people.
Was it your impression that the only time people are pulled over is when cars are observed, while moving, from another moving vehicle (cop car) dozens of yards behind them? If that was your impression, then let it be corrected – there are many instances in which a cop might see individual features of a driver prior to deciding to pull them over. The most common might be cops on the side of the road, waiting for signs or evidence of behavior they deem worthy of their attention (which may or may not include “driving while black”), and then pulling into traffic and pulling over their target.
Compared to who?
I’m not an expert on these things, but I think that’s what “intersectionality” is meant to cover. A homeless gay white man will have different type of issues than a rich African-American woman. And, then “intersectionality” became a snarl word on the right and is used to mock people who try to understand the problems your friend may encounter.
Yes. For example, twenty years ago, the NJ State Police agreed to a consent decree because of exactly that: https://www.aclu-nj.org/theissues/policepractices/usjusticedepartmentandstat
ETA: For me, privileged. Straight white upper middle class male, happily married, homeowner, etc.
Sure, because being “rich” makes you “privileged”
I don’t need to be rich to be privileged. My innate features already do that for me.
The OP doesn’t specify, but I’d offer up for consideration that perhaps we should look at where we find ourselves situated compared to the average American.
I guess it all goes down to how privilege is defined.
I define it as more like “What are my chances to have a happy, stable successful life.”
To me, the the items that top the priviledge list are growing up having a healthy, stable, loving, two-parent family. Your parents had good enough jobs that they are able to spend time with you and heavily emphasize education and achievement. These are HUGE. With that steady foundation, life is so so much easier.