Whites aren't necessarily more privileged than other races.
Men aren't necessarily more privileged than women.
Very persuasive arguments have been made asserting the opposite, and they are worthy of consideration and discussion.
I wouldn't bring this up with most people as I am a white male and would be swiftly slandered (I live in Seattle), but I think (hope) Mustachians can hear it without getting nasty.
I'm going to assume that this comes down largely to a particular interpretation of what white and male privilege are.
They don't mean that a member of one group has it better than a member of another, although it can. It specifically means that one group experiences challenges that are specific to being a member of that group that members of the other group don't experience.
You don't experience negative judgements and treatment of you because of the colour of your skin. People of colour do. Does that mean they can't transcend those particular challenges? No of course not, it just means that they deal with it and you don't. You have the privilege of not having to even think about it.
You don't have to worry about the texture of your hair being perceived as "unprofessional". It's just not something you need to think about, you can just get a normal haircut and go to an interview.
A poor white man born to addicts, who has low IQ and poor impulse control due to fetal alcohol syndrome, who was also malnourished as a child, lost his fingers to frostbite, and is addicted to meth is DEFINITELY not walking around with much privilege. But he still has white male privilege because none of his problems are *because* of his skin colour or his gender.
His issues are because he lacks
-wealth privilege
-intelligence privilege
-able bodied privilege
-social class privilege
-educational privilege
-mental health privilege
There are many different types of privilege. Don't look at it so much as the advantage that you have as a white male, just be open to understanding that there's just some crap you don't have to deal with because you aren't a person of colour or a woman.
As a white person who grew up living part time with a black family and having lived with a black man, there are just some things that I don't have to deal with that they do. That's my privilege being white. The biggest one being that I just expect police to see me as a nice, middle class lady who poses no threat whatsoever, which is exactly how police have always treated me. My ex? Not so much.
Now, my ex had all sorts of bougie privilege that I didn't growing up. He's also able bodied and I'm not. His life has overall been much, much easier than mine. But he doesn't have white privilege. He experiences particular challenges of being black that I will never have to deal with because I'm white. His life is so much easier than mine, but I never ever have police hover their hands over their guns when they see me, it never happens, ever, they smile at me and say "bonjour Madame". My life has been hard, but not *because* I'm white. His life has been pretty easy, but has certain difficulties mine doesn't *just because* he's black.
That's white privilege in a nutshell.
Does that maybe make a little sense?
