White Privilege

I don't feel it, I see it. And it's not just you.It's the general way the concept is argued on the internet.Consider it constructive criticism; the standard way of arguing against white people about thier privileges contains some counter-productive rhetoric. I haven't even addressed that question. Maybe by word count, but what we're talking about is:

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Person A being deprived of something in favour of Person B because Person B has something Person A does not would be an example of Person B's privilege in relation to Person A.

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Ugh, I'll just stick with: Person A has a disadvantage. Nope, you are the first one.So what am I supposed to actually do?

Pardon me for being disadvantaged. I'm new to this.Or should I say: Check your privilege. Not all of us have had the time to study this for so long. Then why do you continue to use it? I'm not trying to win an argument, I'm explaining to you why I don't care to use the concept. It isn't worth anything. In fact, your way is worth less to me.Simplifying a complex concept into sound bites doesn't make the concept more palatable.I'm pretty sure that's part of the trick, though. So far, that's gotten me responses like:

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Apparently you'd prefer to rail against my terrible crimes rather than deal with the moral argument. Because white men's feelings are the thing I should spend most of my effort here to preserve, right?

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After all, I should be sensitive to the fact that white men, especially American white men have had race issues thrust upon them without their consent and its not their fault! Not their fault. They aren't guilty. And they can't talk about the subject until the person their opponent puts it in a 24pt font, prints it on glossy paper and mails it to every person in the world.

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You need to check your privilege again. Not all of us have the luxury of caring about your moral dilemma.Anyways, recall that I've admitted I don't get it, have acknowledged that I don't feel guilt, and have been asking questions to gain an understanding.And I get met with basically "if you ain't with us, you're against us".More of the trick, I guess.Notice how it's practically impossible for me to have not needed to check my privilege, and that privilege is something that is so elusive that I may not even notice it at all, but it really is really there.You know what else is hard to notice? Things that don't exist and are made up.This whole thing is like some kind of Orwellian game, or something..."No, it's not that that person has a disadvantage, it's that you have a privilege".You're turning the tables around so that people don't consider that they need to help another person with a negative quality, but instead they need to notice and admit all the positive qualities that they themselves have.Now, in principle I don't have much of a problem with that. But the approach of carelessly using rhetoric that makes people feel guilt, and then on top of that, turning that back around against them with the charge that their guilt is misplaced because you didn't mean to imply responsibility, coupled with the problem being something that they couldn't possibly have avoided, and backed up with them not noticing it not because it isn't prevalent, but because it is so elusive, well, that just sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me. I'm still not buying it.And regarding my "feelings", they don't have anything to do with it. I just figure that as a wealthy white guy you would want me on your side and have been trying to explain why the approach to this problem isn't working.But again, since I'm not immediately with you then I must be doing everything I can to be against you.Okay then, good luck. I'll stop trying to help.