In my race relations class, we spent an entire class trying to figure out the "rank" of American society. Everyone, every single person agreed that white males were on top. Then everything after white males differed from person to person.

Race, class and gender are pretty much tangled up together to determine who gets the most priviledges in this country. You say politicians get the most privilege, but most politicians ARE white males and whites in general do have the most wealth in this country (wealth being the combined total of assets owned, minus any debt owed).

Anyway, I'm 2nd generation American which means my parents were immigrants, and they both came over with very very very little money. We went through a lot of rough times in terms of our financial situation which I thought was beneficial in some ways because it taught me to appreciate money so much more.

Nowadays, I'd say that we're doing really well. Middle class at the very least. We have a really nice house in the suburbs, parents drive a Lexus, and I go to a fairly prestigious private University.

I'd say we're doing pretty good. I wouldn't really say "privileged" though, at least not for my parents. I think that word has connotations of luxury and reward based on arbitrary things. And nothing was ever handed easily to my parents. They faced their share of racism and discrimination but they fought through it to get to where they are today. I seriously don't know of any other person who is as hardworking as my Mom. It's almost scary how much both my parents work.

For myself, yeah, I do think that I'm privileged. I've benefited from my parents hard work without doing all that much myself.