What is privilege?

This is a question which BuzzFeed's Daysha Edewi explored through an interactive exercise. Participants were arranged in a line and then asked to take steps forward or back depending on their answers to a set of statements, such as:

•  If the primary language spoken in your household growing up was not English, take one step back

Or

• If you would never think twice about calling the police when trouble occurs, take one step forward.  (Full set here)

At the end, the group of 10 individuals found themselves distributed through the room with, predictably, a white man at the front and a black woman at the back.

The participants found it an intense, emotional experience and I'm not surprised: the result is a powerful visualisation of some of the hardest things to talk about in society.

"We were all joking around at the start but as soon as the questions started coming in the mood shifted immediately and it was just silent," said one.

Another commented: "It's weird how you want to hold on to explaining a certain privilege 'Oh but that's not actually me because I had to work really hard for that'."

I liked this idea and treatment. Although it was only 10 people and clearly not "data", it is a thought-provoking visualisation and a reminder that behind all human statistics are real people.

The production values work well, I like the text over video and the overlapping audio build-up of the questions.

However, it raises some editorial difficulties for news, among them "Who sets the statements? Who gets to decide what is defined as privilege?".

The video is part of Buzzfeed Yellow which describes itself as "tasty short, fun, inspiring, funny, interesting videos from the BuzzFeed crew".

It reminds me of the format of the award-winning Like a Girl campaign from Always.