Invitation to Contribute to a Video Archive: Personal Stories of Privilege
As part of the Special Task Group (STG) on Privilege appointed by SCP President Tania Israel, we invite you to create a short video clip describing your own experiences of privilege, which will be included in a permanent online archive available to members of SCP, APA, and others who are interested in this topic.  We expect this archive will be used in teaching, consciousness raising, and training activities around developing privilege awareness.
Privilege is comprised of unearned advantages that are conferred on individuals based on membership in a dominant group or assumed membership. Privilege has the following characteristics:

• Privilege reflects, reifies and supports dominant power structures.
• Privilege is supported structurally and systemically, including an investment in maintaining a lack of consciousness about the benefits and costs resulting from that privilege.
• Privilege is enacted through societal structures, systems, and daily interactions.
• A single individual may experience intersecting privileges and oppressions which may reflect differential receipt of benefits.

Advantages gained through unearned privilege can vary from being able to get a band-aid that matches one’s own skin tone to enjoying freedom from discrimination in travel, housing, or employment, and even to increased physical safety in some settings.
While it is common in workshops and other projects for participants to share their experiences of oppression, for this project we ask you to specifically focus on ways in which you have experienced unearned privilege because of who you are. Examples of identities that may confer unearned privilege are race, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, national or regional origin, and ability status, but it is not necessary to limit yourself to this list.  Also, some groups that are privileged in the U.S. may be disadvantaged in other countries. Finally, acknowledging privilege does not negate experiences of oppression. All of us are privileged in some ways and not in others.

Guidelines for Creating Video Clips
The following are guidelines for creating these clips.  Please focus on your own personal experiences of privilege in one or more areas; clips that attack other individuals or groups will not be accepted for posting.
Your stories can talk about early experiences as well as current experiences of privilege in your personal or work life. Please make these stories personal reflections, rather than scholarly discussions – it is not necessary to cite any literature!
Your clip should begin with a one-sentence introduction, describing the type of privilege you will discuss – for example, “this is a story about when I first became aware of my privilege as a White person,” or “here are some advantages I’ve realized are not earned but related to my status as a U.S. citizen.”

Guiding Questions
The following are some questions you may choose to answer:

• How did you first become aware of your privilege?
• What kinds of advantages do you have as a result of this privilege?
• How do you feel about having this kind of privilege? Are the feelings mixed?
• How have you responded to your awareness of this privilege?

Technical Instructions
In creating your clips, please carefully follow the technical instructions below.
You can use any type of digital camera to make your video. For example, you can use a webcam, a video recorder on a smart phone, or a digital video camera. If you do not have access to a personal camera, many universities have recording equipment available to students and faculty. As you set up to record your video, please consider your setting and background. For example, avoid strong lights directly behind you. Also, record in a quiet place that will minimize distracting noise. Stabilize your camera by placing it on a table or tripod at a height where you are clearly visible in the picture.

You can use any video format that can be uploaded onto YouTube such as WebM, MPEG4, 3GPP, MOV, .AVI, .MPEGPS, .WMV and .FLV files. Videos can be up to 25 MB in size. Please limit your video to no more than two minutes in length. If your recording goes over two minutes, the STG  will return the video to you to edit it down to this length. The STG will not edit the video for length or content. Once your video is recorded, please email the file to stgprivilegevideos@gmail.com. Be sure to include contact information (name, phone number, email), and suggestion of a short title for your video. Please include a statement in your email that indicates that you are giving the STG permission to post your video. If you follow a script that you have written, please send it along with your video. This will helpful in captioning videos, so that they will be more accessible to individuals with certain disabilities.

Posting Considerations
As videos are received, they will be transcribed in order to add captions. Videos will then uploaded to a Privilege webpage on the Division 17 YouTube channel. By submitting your clip you are giving permission to the STG to use your video on the Division 17 YouTube channel. While we hope to post all videos that are submitted, this may be limited by the number we receive and the resources available to transcribe and catalog these submissions. Further, the STG and the leadership of SCP reserves the right to not post a video.

As you consider your responses to stimulus questions, please remember that videos will be hosted on YouTube. Although it is unlikely that videos will be high-traffic material, or that they would be located through a general web search, they will be accessible through YouTube and available publically. If at any time you would like your video removed from the website, please send an email indicating your request.

When submitting your video, please keep the following in mind:

• You are giving Division 17 permission to reproduce, distribute, and publically display the electronic content (“video”) that you submit for educational purposes.

• Division 17 takes no responsibility for the unlikely instance that videos would be posted by a third party to a website other than the Division 17 YouTube channel.
• Division 17 has the sole right to refuse any video for any reason.
• All videos must conform to YouTube’s terms of service which include no porn, no offensive language, no posting of copyrighted materials without the permission of the rights holder. (For a detailed explanation of YouTube’s Terms of Service, please see http://www.youtube.com/t/terms).

Please send any questions to stgprivilegevideos@gmail.com.