Is the term "White Privilege" part of my Invisible Knapsack?

[bcholmes]

I'm trying to figure out what I think about this article on the term "white privilege".

Here's a quotation:

"White Privilege" is a misnomer for it suggests that white people enjoy socioeconomic advantages and benefits beyond a standard level of rights and opportunity (which presumably non-white people are afforded). however, the term does not account for the exploitation and disfranchisement of people of color that is a consequence of “White Privilege.” people of color do not possess the freedoms and protections of full and actualized citizenship. the legal and social structures of this nation do not merely demonstrate partiality towards white people but also simultaneously deny people of color the most basic of human rights, such as housing, health, education, justice, peace. the corollary to what some would term "White Privilege" is "colored degradation."

[...]

and so the white Leftists who think they are down because they have got the courage to lamentably declare, "We’ve got White Privilege," it would be more accurate and truthful to say instead, "We are beneficiaries of racism," or "We participate in a racialized system of oppression."

I get what's being said. And I find myself saying something very similar w.r.t. the phrase (used to describe Haiti) "the poorest country in the western hemisphere". The phrase seems to neatly avoid the full extent of the problem. It would be more accurate to say, "the country in the western hemisphere that we have most impoverished". I think there's an important point there.

Nonetheless, my first reaction to reading the North Star article is to think: "your sample set is university students." I'm sure that's not a good reaction, but there it is.

I find this article¹ really captures how much education needs to go on about white privilege, and how quick people are to close their minds to any suggestion that white people enjoy something that not all people get, and that has not been earned.

This article is another key article on white privilege.

¹ I think it was firecat who first pointed me toward that article.