Universities in the United States have launched social marketing experiments to raise awareness about social inequalities and privilege, defined as "unearned access to social power based on membership in a dominant social group."
At the University of San Francisco, posters urged students, faculty and staff to check their privilege among "white," "male," "class," "Christian," "cisgender," "able-bodied" and "heterosexual." (According to Wikia, "cisgender" is a term for "someone who has a gender identity that aligns with what they were assigned at birth." This term was made to refer to "non-transgender" people without alienating transgender people).
"If you can expect time off from work to celebrate your religious holidays, you have Christian privilege," the university poster for "Christian privilege" read.
According to the campaign, people nowadays "live in a society that is often oppressive to certain groups ... However, we all carry particular types of privilege(s) that allow us to advocate for social justice and change in various situations."
The campaign seeks to start discussion about privilege and social inequalities to raise awareness of "institutional oppression" in the U.S.
At the Southern Oregon University, the posters sparked discussion and controversy.
"(We wanted) to provide awareness that privilege does exist, and explain that privilege does not just pertain to race but that there are other forms of privilege. We wanted to start a dialogue ... and I would say we succeeded," said SOU Associate Director of Student Life-Diversity and Inclusion Marjorie Trueblood-Gamble, according to the campus newspaper The Siskiyou.
Student and U.S. Marine corps veteran Tim Short said the campaign is segregating and dividing the population by targeting certain groups.
"I don't see why we have to divide people up into separate groups," he said.
Marketing posters at Virginia Tech, Oregon University, and the University of San Francisco suggest that Christians get unearned advantages, CBN News reports.
Writing on the conservative Young America's Foundation blog, Elizabeth Campbell says, "Today, I was diagnosed with privilege."
"Symptoms: white, Christian, straight, 'cisgender,' and able bodied," she writes. "Virginia Tech deciding who does and does not have privilege is not okay. Going up to a sign and reading that you should 'check your privilege' just because of the situations you were born into, and paths you have chosen for your life, is categorizing and dividing people further."
