# I am not a fan of the term "white privilege” **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872 "2016-03-03T22:11:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/61 "2016-03-04T16:24:57Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think what maybe would make sense in this thread is not so much the issue of class privilege of the upper middle class/wealthy, but the class privilege of the middle middle class. Is it fair to describe someone who grew up with a dad who was a mechanic and mom that cut hair as having “class privilege”? They certainly had advantages–substantial advantages–that truly poor kids didn’t, but I think it would chafe some people from that sort of background to be described as “privileged”–because middle-middle class means there were some pretty rough spots when expenses crept well ahead of income, and lots of seeing other people do things you couldn’t possibly afford to do. > > I think a lot of people see being white as kind of like being “middle middle class”, and to call that “privileged” seems to be overstating the case. I disagree, myself, for both those situations: I find the concept of relative privilege to be very useful, because I think it’s important for people to see how the system does and does not work for them, which you cannot do if you feel like admitting you have any advantages is somehow the same as accepting culpability. But I also think virtually everyone has some sorts of privilege and is underprivileged in other ways. And that’s how the conversation should go–not to who has the biggest net gain or loss relative to some imaginary average. I completely agree. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/62 "2016-03-04T16:39:29Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think what maybe would make sense in this thread is not so much the issue of class privilege of the upper middle class/wealthy, but the class privilege of the middle middle class. Is it fair to describe someone who grew up with a dad who was a mechanic and mom that cut hair as having “class privilege”? They certainly had advantages–substantial advantages–that truly poor kids didn’t, but I think it would chafe some people from that sort of background to be described as “privileged”–because middle-middle class means there were some pretty rough spots when expenses crept well ahead of income, and lots of seeing other people do things you couldn’t possibly afford to do. > > I think a lot of people see being white as kind of like being “middle middle class”, and to call that “privileged” seems to be overstating the case. I disagree, myself, for both those situations: I find the concept of relative privilege to be very useful, because I think it’s important for people to see how the system does and does not work for them, which you cannot do if you feel like admitting you have any advantages is somehow the same as accepting culpability. But I also think virtually everyone has some sorts of privilege and is underprivileged in other ways. And that’s how the conversation should go–not to who has the biggest net gain or loss relative to some imaginary average. I think a big part of the protesting is in the actual use of the word “privilege”. It has negative connotations that imply that it’s unearned, or exploitative, which aren’t necessarily the case. I think had the whole field of discussion come about using a different term- maybe empowered, or even advantaged, it wouldn’t be quite such a hot topic, as few people are going to argue that white people have certain advantages or empowerments as a result of the way the system is structured, that minorities don’t have. But calling them “privileged” carries a lot of baggage that tends to raise people’s hackles for other reasons beyond just the narrow concept being discussed. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/63 "2016-03-04T16:46:39Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think a big part of the protesting is in the actual use of the word “privilege”. It has negative connotations that imply that it’s unearned, or exploitative, which aren’t necessarily the case. > > I think had the whole field of discussion come about using a different term- maybe empowered, or even advantaged, it wouldn’t be quite such a hot topic, as few people are going to argue that white people have certain advantages or empowerments as a result of the way the system is structured, that minorities don’t have. But calling them “privileged” carries a lot of baggage that tends to raise people’s hackles for other reasons beyond just the narrow concept being discussed. I think it’s more than that. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable in thinking that they have any sort of privilege, or advantage, or edge, or whatever you want to call it. Our national obsession with self-reliance means that labeling someone as having an advantage is devaluing their own accomplishments–the world is all “people who worked for it” and “people who got lucky” and we are uncomfortable with overlap. I also think that people are okay with feeling sorry for other people for being underprivileged, but think that admitting your own privilege means you should feel guilty. I don’t think it does–I don’t feel guilty–but I can see how they would. Feeling sorry for other people leaves you feeling doubly good about yourself–both that you aren’t unlucky, and that you are a good, moral person with empathy and shit. Feeling guilty makes you feel bad about yourself, and since it’s not a guilt you can discharge, there’s nowhere for the guilt to go. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/64 "2016-03-04T16:48:30Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I think of a privilege is an unearned “leg-up” on something that an individual or a small group of people hold over a majority. Maybe Amy got into Harvard easily because her father is a wealthy donor to the university. Amy was at the head of the admissions line, in front of thousands of others. Amy is privileged, and let’s face it, when others say that word in relation to her, it is not complementary. > > White people are treated by society how people should be treated. They are not given advantages. Society treats white people as “normal.” The problem is that society does not treat non-whites as “normal.” The non-whites are victims of racism. Two people, Alfred and Benjamin. They live in the same house. Alfred has all the normal rights and responsibilities of US citizenship. He has a job, he pays the rent etc. Benjamin lives there rent free. Also, he is kept in chains, and Alfred has anal sex with him without his permission whenever he wants. Who’s more privileged in that household? Alfred or Benjamin? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/65 "2016-03-04T16:50:58Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think it’s more than that. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable in thinking that they have any sort of privilege, or advantage, or edge, or whatever you want to call it. Yes. People are kidding themselves if they think the problem is the _word_. It’s the _concept_ that makes people uncomfortable. Doesn’t really matter what you call it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/66 "2016-03-04T16:53:56Z")
Privilege may also come up as a descriptor for white people in these circumstances because some minorities are just so damn tired of being _labeled_ – tired of the _special circumstances_ always being on them, and not others. Perhaps it’s a way of saying “no, what’s happening to me is bad, but it’s also the default and normal for folks like me, and because of your privilege, you just aren’t able to see it”. And part of the reason many white people may object to being called “privileged” is (or may be) because they’re so used to assuming that they are the _default Americans_ that to, for one instance at least, not be the rhetorical “default”, is disconcerting. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/67 "2016-03-04T16:54:16Z")
And some people DO throw around the word “privilege” like its an insult - like its a step away from “blatant racist/sexist.” Which puts people on the defensive. Or they discount the perspectives and opinions of someone coming from privilege. Just because I’m white and have gotten a bigger voice in the past, doesn’t mean I should be silenced completely now. Privilege is like color blindness - it isn’t fair to blame someone because they can’t tell green and blue apart. It is fair when they argue with you over what is green and what is blue - and their input on other components of color like intensity might be quite interesting. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/68 "2016-03-04T17:26:35Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think it’s more than that. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable in thinking that they have any sort of privilege, or advantage, or edge, or whatever you want to call it. Our national obsession with self-reliance means that labeling someone as having an advantage is devaluing their own accomplishments–the world is all “people who worked for it” and “people who got lucky” and we are uncomfortable with overlap. > > I also think that people are okay with feeling sorry for other people for being underprivileged, but think that admitting your own privilege means you should feel guilty. I don’t think it does–I don’t feel guilty–but I can see how they would. Feeling sorry for other people leaves you feeling doubly good about yourself–both that you aren’t unlucky, and that you are a good, moral person with empathy and shit. Feeling guilty makes you feel bad about yourself, and since it’s not a guilt you can discharge, there’s nowhere for the guilt to go. I’m just speaking from personal experience. If 5 years ago (before I heard of “white privilege”) someone had told me that I, as a middle-aged white male, have certain advantages over a black guy of the same age, then I’d probably have agreed; it’s hard to argue that society and institutions don’t treat us differently. But I’d have bristled if you called it “privilege”, because of the connotations of it being something special, or out of the ordinary, or even luxurious. It’s not a matter of guilt; it’s more the connotations/thinly-veiled hostility that using “privilege” in that way carries. Like I was saying earlier, privilege is a terrible term, especially when used from a totally relative position. To use a race-neutral example, is it really “privilege” to have the basics like food, shelter, and a toilet, if looking at it from the perspective of a homeless guy under a bridge? Is that “shelter privilege”? I’d think that almost anyone would argue that the homeless guy is lacking those basics, not that everyone else is somehow “privileged”. And that’s the problem with the term, and the use of it in relative examples without some kind of baseline. And for contemporary American society, probably lower-middle class or middle-middle class white Americans are that baseline. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/69 "2016-03-04T17:42:25Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Privilege may also come up as a descriptor for white people in these circumstances because some minorities are just so damn tired of being _labeled_ – tired of the _special circumstances_ always being on them, and not others. Perhaps it’s a way of saying “no, what’s happening to me is bad, but it’s also the default and normal for folks like me, and because of your privilege, you just aren’t able to see it”. > > And part of the reason many white people may object to being called “privileged” is (or may be) because they’re so used to assuming that they are the _default Americans_ that to, for one instance at least, not be the rhetorical “default”, is disconcerting. I think this is really insightful. One of the defining characteristics of this kind of “privilege” is that it’s so seamless, so natural, and so automatic that you don’t see it. I never gave much thought to being white. Then I spent several years in places where I was a visible minority. And you know what? It was tiring. The constant feeling of know that people were wondering what I was doing there. The baggage that comes in whenever I meet someone. Always being the “foreign teacher” or “foreign friend” and never just a teacher or friend. And certainly never just Sven. The occasional outright racism was obnoxious, too. But the most wearing part was that can’t-get-comfortable-in-your-skin feeling of being always being aware of how you are different. Of how you are navigating a world that isn’t set up for you. Of course, it’s not the same situation as a minority here. I had a plane ticket home. I had a place to go where I did belong. I was just a tourist at it. But it was enough that when I get on a subway or walk in to a store, I still feel a flush of relief. Thank god they aren’t looking at me. I’m still grateful when I walk in to an interview that they are interviewing ME, not me the minority. I am thankful that I can walk in to a bank, a law firm, a corner store, a school…basically anywhere, and not feel like I have to explain my presence or apologize for myself. It’s something I would have never known to miss, until it was gone. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/70 "2016-03-04T20:49:29Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Class privilege is huge. It defines what sort of safety net you have to take risks. Provides connections that can give you a leg up. Determines if you are going to get taken seriously when house shopping. Sets your expectations in terms of college (upper middle class kids go to college, poor kids aren’t given that expectation by default). Class - as defined by behavior, not wealth - also helps you navigate the world of power - you learn the appropriate manners and small talk that will mark you as “one that belongs.” Yes. I was homeless in 1984 in New York City and ended up in the homeless shelters after being on the street for awhile. I had no more raw economic resources than the other people there and my handful of connections in NYC were no better able to help me out than the friends and relatives of the other shelter folks. But we weren’t on equal footing nevertheless. I only had a high school education, which not everyone else there had but which nevertheless didn’t set me aside as far better educated on average; _but_ I’d been to better schools and had read extensively. I grew up eating supper around a dining room table where we discussed physics and politics and the plots of books and the acting skills of actors. And I was a voracious reader and I’d absorbed vocabulary and grammar and I had the speaking patterns and rhythms of the upper middle class. I’d grown up seeing how employed adults in professions interacted with their colleagues from dinner parties and that sort of thing. I had an unconscious awareness of how the upper middle class person boasts, how they acknowledge their peers in the hallway, how they conduct themselves in meetings, how they write letters to the editor or explain themselves in a courtroom to the judge. I had an expectation that there were social systems and I sought them out and dealt with the people running them. (Yeah I found it way frustrating and demeaning but I also had skills and knowledge and an expectation of how I ought to be treated and had at least limited success in demanding that and getting it). ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/71 "2016-03-04T21:32:17Z")
I’m white, upper middle class, educated, reasonably healthy and attractive, raised in a 2 parent family that valued education. Hells yeah I’m privileged, advantaged, whatever term you want to use. I think the error is for people who enjoy the “advantaged position” to simply say, those below them ought to just raise themselves or be assisted in raising themselves to the better position. Yet, they tend to oppose any actions - such as quotas or affirmative action, or even increased taxes for social services, to address what seem to be historical inequities. I really don’t care what specific term is used to describe the phenomena - which I accept as truth - that I have countless things big and small that make my life easier and more pleasant because I do not have to experience indignities associated with simply being of color. I think too few whites acknowledge the benefits they derive simply as a result of their skin color. As such, “privilege” impresses me as a fine term. But what other term do you suggest? ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/72 "2016-03-04T23:10:15Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > It’s called white privilege because, all else equal, it is a disadvantage NOT to be white. If you compare two individuals at the same socioeconomic level, of the same gender, same advantages, same levels of education, and same work experiences, the white person would be more likely to succeed in their future endeavors because of societal bias. This is a fact, it cannot be argued against. Your mistake is taking it personally. There is no obligation to feel guilty about your privilege. But if you wish to be considered a person of conscience and wisdom, you do have a duty to recognize that an accident of birth has made certain aspects of your life less difficult than they otherwise would be. Why should I **not** take it personally when it is shouted in my face? I agree with Der Trihs on this. White Privilege has become a term used like a club, without any thought of appropriate applicability by its user. While the original intent might be good, it has become warped by its users, which has then triggered an appropriate backlash. The term is now used more as a means to tell poor whites to shut up and stop whining instead of a means of educating and information about the various invisible advantages that come into play depending the layer of society and the location. Where I live, the schools exhibit signs of Asian privilege - white students are assumed to be dumber than Asians (and Hispanics and blacks are even further down in the pecking order). However, even discussing that as a white male (and father to a pair of them as well) gets you in trouble - and the conversation quickly turns to all of the advantages of being white. If I being up my trailer park background - I only hear about the edge I had as a white to get out, and that lecture comes from someone who graduated from a top boarding school before hitting the Ivy League. But if I try to mention the possibility of the impact of class privilege, somehow it is once again the edge that whites have that is the focus of the conversation, and they once again start sneering “white privilege.” So - white privilege is a term that has great meaning, but not in the way that I have every experienced it being used. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/73 "2016-03-05T14:09:38Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > Why should I **not** take it personally when it is shouted in my face? > > I agree with Der Trihs on this. > > White Privilege has become a term used like a club, without any thought of appropriate applicability by its user. While the original intent might be good, it has become warped by its users, which has then triggered an appropriate backlash. > > The term is now used more as a means to tell poor whites to shut up and stop whining instead of a means of educating and information about the various invisible advantages that come into play depending the layer of society and the location. Where I live, the schools exhibit signs of Asian privilege - white students are assumed to be dumber than Asians (and Hispanics and blacks are even further down in the pecking order). However, even discussing that as a white male (and father to a pair of them as well) gets you in trouble - and the conversation quickly turns to all of the advantages of being white. > > If I being up my trailer park background - I only hear about the edge I had as a white to get out, and that lecture comes from someone who graduated from a top boarding school before hitting the Ivy League. But if I try to mention the possibility of the impact of class privilege, somehow it is once again the edge that whites have that is the focus of the conversation, and they once again start sneering “white privilege.” > > So - white privilege is a term that has great meaning, but not in the way that I have every experienced it being used. Social justice warriors’ slapdash use of the term is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Poor people with white skin who feel offended and block out the concept altogether \*would still be categorically worse off \*if they were poor people with black skin. That is the concept of white privilege in a nutshell. Of course socioeconomic privilege is strong. It’s a much more reliable predictor of success than skin color. You can always look up on the socioeconomic ladder and find a person of color who is more successful than you. Comparing white prunes to black plums, however, does \*\*not \*\*negate the truth of white privilege. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/74 "2016-03-05T14:30:55Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Social justice warriors’ slapdash use of the term is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Poor people with white skin who feel offended and block out the concept altogether \*would still be categorically worse off \*if they were poor people with black skin. That is the concept of white privilege in a nutshell. > > Of course socioeconomic privilege is strong. It’s a much more reliable predictor of success than skin color. You can always look up on the socioeconomic ladder and find a person of color who is more successful than you. Comparing white prunes to black plums, however, does \*\*not \*\*negate the truth of white privilege. The other end of that is that its natural to get defensive over it. And when you are already being stomped on by your socioeconomic situation, it really doesn’t seem fair when the word is thrown around like an accusation and you really aren’t feeling like you are getting a lot of benefit from being white. We’d probably do better to acknowledge that privilege is more than white and male - which is where it usually gets used - and that there privilege (as the word is used in this context) in growing up wealthy over middle class, middle class over poor. Growing up in a two parent household. Growing up with parents that went to college. Growing up with conversations around the dinner table about books or current events. There is urban privilege - where you have access growing up to a lot more than if you grow up in a town in Southern Iowa where the nearest library is in the town ten miles over and its 40 miles to get to a movie theatre. There are tons of variables in predictors to success. And the oppression Olympics might feel rigged if you are poor and white and male living in the middle of Mississippi. Or if you are Native American on a reservation in Northern Minnesota - where your chances for success are pretty dismal, but no one talks about you and you get the feeling that “white privilege” is far more of a discussion on how bad it is for black Americans while you are forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/75 "2016-03-05T14:47:26Z")
But the thing is, no one ever denies that there is class privilege. Even wealthy people will acknowledge that they have an easier life than the poor. Tons of people are in denial about white privilege, though. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/76 "2016-03-05T14:58:16Z")
White privilege is a term used as an excuse for the collapse of the family unit. It was bought and paid for with tax money in the form of social programs which enslaved poor communities into single parent households. The result was a massive breakdown of the education system. It’s nothing for a school in a poor community to have a 50% dropout rate and even if a child graduates the diploma is worthless because standards were lowered to increase graduation rates. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/77 "2016-03-05T14:58:39Z")
Black people face discrimination not just because of their race and not just because they are disproportionately poor, but also because blackness is a marker of poverty. In other words, being a middle class black person does not provide complete immunity from class-based prejudiced. Not when so many just assume that being black = being poor. White skin is not a marker of poverty. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/78 "2016-03-05T15:07:16Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Black people face discrimination not just because of their race and not just because they are disproportionately poor, but also because blackness is a marker of poverty. In other words, being a middle class black person does not provide complete immunity from class-based prejudiced. Not when so many just assume that being black = being poor. > > White skin is not a marker of poverty. Not only poor, but poorly educated. Black Americans don’t get a lot of positive stereotypes. Which white people, whose clues for judging each other are far more subtle than the color of their skin, have a hard time internalizing - thus the debate. Though whites (and blacks) have other markers of poverty - being obese is one and that one is not subtle. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/79 "2016-03-05T15:15:55Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > But the thing is, no one ever denies that there is class privilege. Even wealthy people will acknowledge that they have an easier life than the poor. > > Tons of people are in denial about white privilege, though. Yeah, what I’m suggesting is that by acknowledging it more with more terms and more use of those terms - we get people to see more shades of privilege. It becomes easier for people to acknowledge their privilege when they understand it isn’t all or nothing - that they’ve not only benefited from some sort of privilege over someone else, but been disadvantaged for some other reason. And you don’t do it in a competitive way, but in an acknowledgment way. Neil deGrasse Tyson said “I’ve never been a woman, but I’ve been black all my life” when presented with a question on women in Science. Its that sort of ability to transfer your experiences that we need to build. And when we keep telling white men that they can’t understand because straight white men are the definition of privilege in our society, we don’t give them a basis to start making those connections - or a reason to. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872/80 "2016-03-05T15:28:54Z")
“It’s a \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ thing, you won’t understand” … yes but it’s also a human thing, I NEED to understand. > [@Frylock](#): > > Yes. People are kidding themselves if they think the problem is the _word_. It’s the _concept_ that makes people uncomfortable. Doesn’t really matter what you call it. And even the concept may not be universally agreed on – ISTM it is properly defined in the sense of a “privileged frame of reference”, as others have said, the presumed default baseline when evaluating a situation. But as mentioned, there has been definition creep that allows its use, and its perception, as some sort of negative personal-morals imputation. But let’s not be fooled, that the word is “privilege” itself hugely helps those who want public opinion to reject it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-term-white-privilege/747872.md?page=5)