# Does the term White Privilege hurt it's own cause

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-term-white-privilege-hurt-its-own-cause/637673>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 14, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-term-white-privilege-hurt-its-own-cause/637673 "2012-10-14T06:50:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 149

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-term-white-privilege-hurt-its-own-cause/637673/149 "2012-10-16T02:31:50Z")

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> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> People have been twisting the term to make it sound like anyone that uses the term is playing the race card.

You don’t need to twist the term; you just need to take it at face value. Which is why the answer to the thread title is “yes”.

> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> The notion that being an athiest has a larger negative impact in America than being black is just silly.

I didn’t say that it was; in fact, I specifically said that it wasn’t.

> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> I don’t think you need to be religious at all unless you want to be a politician or a preacher.

Or work for any number of people who will find excuses to fire you if they discover you aren’t religious.

> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#):
>
> Beyond that, you already demolished this argument by insisting it was proper to talk about “Christian privilege” in American, despite there being huge numbers of poor Christians in America.

It’s not the same thing. Religions are institutions, not just individuals.

> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#):
>
> However, you insist “Christian privilege” is real because it lets you feel special, like your the plucky outsider agaist the man who has to constantly hide who he is lest the big bad Christians come to kill you.

:rolleyes: Or it might have something to do with the polls showing how disdained atheists are, and political leaders from the Presidents on down openly regarding atheists as evil and traitorous.

And this reality-denying insistence that atheists _aren’t_ a hated minority just underlines how hypocritical the people who make speeches about “white privilege” actually are. And that it has nothing to do with any desire for social justice.

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