Students gather at Meadors Multicultural House to discuss privilege

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, Nadia Glover, the Coordinator of Inclusive Engagement at Wofford, and two students arrived at Meadors Multicultural House in the Greek Village to begin preparations for the first “Real Talk Tuesdays” workshop, which invites students to discuss a variety of topics.  

The subject of the event was “privilege.”  

Before students arrived, Glover, who is in her first year in the position of Coordinator of Inclusive Engagement, expressed her excitement for the semester’s first “Real Talk Tuesday.” She mentioned that she planned for the workshop to be “very informal because [this] way, students feel more comfortable to speak up.”    

As an ice breaker, Glover asked each person to share a “cute fun fact”—some of which were “I really love sneakers” and “I lived in Mexico for a while.” Nadia then introduced the activity, which she called “Privilege for Sale.” Each table had a list of  27 privileges. Each group was randomly assigned different amounts of “money” that ranged from $300 to $700, and every privilege was worth $100. The team members had to discuss which privileges to purchase and which to do without.  

Afterwards, the groups were asked to share the amount of money they were assigned, which privileges they chose to purchase and why. The most popular picks were “access to clean running water within your residential home” and “the ability to speak to shop alone, most of the time, and be well assured that you will not be followed or harassed.”  

Other privileges included “access to three meals a day through the dining hall” and “the ability to freely navigate your living space by foot.”  

Many students did not expect to see that some of the topics counted as privileges, which indicated that many attributes that were listed are easily taken for granted.  

Nadia also asked the teams to share the process they used to choose the privileges most important to them: asking themselves “do we really need this” was what decided which privileges were most important.  

Finally, they were asked their take on the topic. 

In response to this, Paola Cruz, ‘23,  said that she learned how “different perspectives came together to see what we have in common” and advised to “not take the privileges you have for granted.”  

Others agreed, and added that when we are born, we don’t know what cards we’re going to be dealt. They also shared how the activity opened their eyes to issues around the world the importance of gratitude.  

The biggest lesson that participants expressed having learned was that everyone has different privileges that can be used for good by extending to people what you have.   

“Real Talk Tuesday” is a new series sponsored by ODI. The next one will be on Oct. 22 and will be in partnership with another organization, yet to be publicized. For updates and more information visit @wocodiversity. Everyone is invited to join!