I’ve been doing a lot of reading and learning. Allow me to share a few things I’ve learned that might help.
Privilege doesn’t mean you haven’t had challenges and difficulties in life. It means that the color of your skin (or gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc) didn’t create those problems. Rather than looking at it as a hierarchy (“is this person’s life more difficult than that person”) it’s helpful to see it as a complex situation. We have target identities (privilege) and agent identities (disenfranchisement). For example, a white gay man would experience privilege for being white and male but disenfranchisement for being gay. A Black lesbian would encounter disenfranchisement based on her skin color, gender, and sexual preference. This is intersectionality–where multiple things are effectively working against someone.
Rather than focusing on equal opportunity, we should focus on equity. Let’s say you have a stairs to enter a building. Any abled person can walk in but someone in a wheelchair could not. That’s not equitable. We see racial inequity show up in places like housing and health. A POC has a shorter life expectancy than a white person. The color of someone’s skin shouldn’t impact their health but it does because of long term inequities.
Hope that helps in your understanding.

I find that I have much more learning and reading to do as well. Thank you Marilyn for listening 🙂

Atticus Rotoli, I read constantly and will definitely read and follow the people suggested and read the suggested article.

Marilyn, I couldn’t disagree more and words cannot properly express the deep frustration and disappointment I feel when I hear you suggest that the notion of white privilege is a fallacy that supports a political narrative. I do not understand how you could quote Dr. King in agreement with the objective for equality while at the same time discrediting one of the key problems preventing that dream for equal rights from being realized. I again implore you take another look at Emily’s article and consider the three points she makes with special attention to her second point about expanding one’s data stream. Marilyn, I do not know if you will be willing to take the next step and follow through with the recommendations of this article, and so for those other folks who are reading this and may be wondering where to start and how to do this, I personally recommend setting up an Instagram account and then following these people to start: @victoriaalxndr, who just shared a very topical article by Peggy McIntosh titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”; @thegreatunlearn hosted by @rachel.cargle; @jessicawilson.msrd; @theconsciouskid; @privtoprog; @mspackyetti. Marilyn, if you are willing to expand the boundaries of your data stream, then these people and sites might be a good place to begin and if I had to pick just one site to start with, I would start with @thegreatunlearn. I wish you the best of luck on your journey and hope that you will take a moment and commit some time to explore and listen before prepping a quick rebuttal.

This is a very clearly expressed opinion. I agree with it.

Atticus, Thanks for your response. You may be right that comparing rioters to children is unfair. And I recognize that many protestors were peaceful and I applaud and support everyone’s right to peaceful protest. I am up for tough conversations. My point, which I may not have made well, is that for Emily to say she is “privileged” bec of the color of her skin is fallacious. And it supports a political narrative that those with white skin must now bow down and apologize for their skin color. It is the flip side of the racism coin. I am with MLK that we should judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. I believe our goal should be equal opportunity for all and support for everyone to take accountability for becoming whoever they want to be.

Alan, we all have pre-conceived notions. I am sure you have interesting stories based on your famiky make-up. My favorite personal story is that the Corp (Fortune 500) that I worked for provided diversity training by the Corp VP of Diversity, an African American corp officer. The gentleman had grown up in Beverly Hills, CA and spoke openly in the training about his youth (obviously his family was quite well to do). After the training, one of my female employees (white) who grew up in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx in a terrible situation, came to me incensed. She was offended that he was lecturing her how to behave when, he was a corp officer and by his own admission, had enjoyed a pretty easy life. She was angry bec she thought she deserved much more credit for what she had overcome and had grown up with much less “privilege” that tge corp officer. it is difficult to go from individual situations to overall policy. I am confident that with respectful conversation, we can continually improve our great country.

I agree that we all have to overcome things in life. However, how do you propose to address that? Was life more difficult for an African American than for someone born with a mental or physical handicap? How are you going to measure the degree of difficulty and who was more “privileged”? i think that the best we can do is provide equal opportunity for all and encourage people to take advantage of the opportunities in front of them.