“ If the idea of thin privilege makes you angry, let me advance a theory: You are angry because you desperately NEED to feel superior to fat people. You NEED to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “Well, I might not have all my shit together, but at least I’m not fat.” You NEED to walk around and cast a disparaging eye on anyone who is ‘too’ fat according your vaunted sensibilities. You NEED to feel like, no matter what a fat person does — if they’re kinder than you, funnier than you, smarter than you — well that means fuck all because at least you’re not fat and that makes you BETTER THAN THEM.

“ Men’s misery does deserve sympathy, but not if it means we ignore how men contribute to that misery, where it comes from, and what men get in exchange for it. It’s all too easy to go from sympathy for men to forgetting that patriarchy and male privilege even exist. Part of what makes it so easy is misunderstanding what privilege is, where it comes from, and how it is distributed. Many men argue, for example, that men are privileged only to the degree that they feel privileged. A key aspect of privilege, however, is to be unaware of it as privilege. In addition, even though men as a group are privileged in society, factors such as race, class, sexual orientation, and disability status affect how much privilege each man gets to enjoy and how he experiences it.

Privilege can take many forms, and its distribution among people in a society is a complicated process. Privilege can be something as simple as being heard and taken seriously when we say something, of being served promptly and courteously in a store or restaurant, or of being free to move around or express an opinion. It can take the form of wealth or power or having other people clean up after us and take care of our needs. In every case, what makes something privilege is the unequal way in which it is distributed and the effect it has of elevating some people over others.

“ HarI went to a prestigious small liberal arts college in Maine. And like many other people of color who have gone to prestigious institutions of higher learning, I had a lot of white liberal friends. And I am sick of some of these white liberal friends telling me how guilty they feel all the time. How guilty they are, how their whiteness makes them feel bad. You know, I’m not impressed. Because if I had the choice between white guilt and racism, I’d take the white guilt every time! White guilt sounds great! Are you kidding me? Imagine this; you’re in a line, you’re about to board an airplane. All of a sudden security shows up. They pull a Sikh man with a beard and a turban off, they search his bags. You’re watching, what do you think to yourself? ‘Oh this is terrible, I feel terrible! This is again racial profiling. That man’s done nothing wrong. How bout they search- they should search me, I’m a white man! I could be the next Timothy McVeigh. They don’t know that! Why don’t they search my bags? ‘Cause I’m white. I feel terrible. I feel so terrible. I mean, I’m still gonna board the plane, but I’m gonna feel bad about it, I’m gonna sit in my chair, I’m gonna feel gross- Oh! I’ll write Rachel Maddow an email, that’s what I’ll do! And I’ll tell Terry Gross, and I’ll read my bell hooks on the plane. Yes, see then, everything will be better. I’ll feel better!’ …to any white liberals watching, remember this; your white guilt is a part of your white privilege.

“

The media focus on student debt, on congressional battles over student loans, and the scarcity of jobs for college graduates obscures the racial and class dynamics that define America’s colleges and universities. With the public discourse surrounding the unfairness of affirmative action for Whites, the threat that Ethnic Studies represents to (White) America, and the absence of “White student unions” in college campuses, public discussions re-imagine Whiteness as precarious, and Whites as victim and at the frontlines of a changing educational landscape. Despite the daily lamenting of the state and future of America’s White students, particularly those with middle and upper-middle incomes, college campuses are still White. In fact, Whites, particularly those whose parents are part of the top 5% of the income distribution, continue to reap the benefits of privilege in (1) admittance, (2) scholarship, and (3) treatment. Let’s not get things twisted here; these colleges and universities are in America, so yes the rules of the game (racism, sexism, classism) do apply.

In 2005, less than one in eight youth from the poorest 25% of society would enroll at a 4-year college university within 2 years of high school graduation. According to Peter Schmidt, author of The Color of Money, “a rich child has about 25 times as much a chance as a poor one of someday enrolling in a college rated as highly selective or better.” Colleges’ overreliance on SAT scores, heightens cultural bias, and the unequal advantages resulting from SAT prep classes, which have proven to benefit Whites and the middle-class. In addition, because admissions give credence to a school’s reputation (which cannot be seen apart from segregation, and racial and class inequality), the rules and the game of college are set up to advantage Mitt Romney’s America: the already privileged. Worse yet, the hegemony of the narratives of meritocracy and the illusion of diversity—which Lani Guiner describes as “a leaf to camouflage privilege”—obscure the endless privileges afforded to the members of middle and upper middle class White America, before they ever step foot on a college campus.

The money is there for White students, particularly those who already have class advantages. From access to prep classes to performative enhancing drugs, from legacies to the “donation path,” America’s colleges and universities are overpopulated by Whites, by the sons and daughter’s of the elite, not because of some level of intelligence, the requisite values, or some all-powerful work ethic, but because of the power of privilege and money.

This points to a clear conclusion: because of access to money, prep classes, or mere connections, that is, because of privilege, America’s colleges and universities, particularly the elite schools, are overpopulated with White students lacking the requisite skills to succeed within these spaces. It is no wonder that America’s colleges and universities are increasingly the educational weight stations for the ill prepared and ill qualified.

While the national press and politicians lament the status and predicament facing (White) college graduates, let us not forget the broader issues at work here. It is revealing that while the face of the aggrieved student is often White, and while the narrative of the student left behind is White, they are not the faces of those students who are getting admitted to universities without “deserving” to be there. Whites are not the face of having easy access to financial aid; they are not the face of those who can afford to and are using drugs without being busted; they are not the face who pop performance enhancing pills; they are not the face of cheating scandals. Yet, instead Whiteness remains the face of victimized student who deserves to be in college, who deserves to secure the American Dream. If that is the case, I think we need to return to a basic lesson: a more accurate definition of “deserve.”

“ By virtue of an accident of birth, African Americans must typically expend an enormous amount of energy defending themselves and their families from the assaults of racism on a regular basis. In contrast, over their lifetimes, white Americans on average have a major life-energy advantage, for they do not waste large amounts of time dealing with the impositions of antiwhite discrimination. This is one important example of white privilege.

More generally, white privilege includes the large set of advantages and benefits inherited by each generation of those routinely defined as “white” in the social structure and processes of U.S. society. The actual white privileges, and the sense that one is entitled to them, are inseparable parts of a greater societal whole. These advantages are material, symbolic, and psychological. They infiltrate and encompass many thousands of interactions and other events played out in an individual white American’s experiences over the course of a lifetime.

Whiteness is so commonplace, so habitual, and so imbedded that it exists even where and when most whites cannot see it. Stated or unstated, it is a fundamental given of this society, as well as other Western societies. White prerogatives stem from the fact that society has, from the beginning, been structured in terms of white enrichment, white gains, and white group interests. The active or passive acceptance of this racialized system as normal has long conferred advantages for whites, even including antiracist whites seeking to eradicate racism. Today, most whites of all political persuasions will say they are opposed to racism, although a majority continue to overtly, covertly, or subtly support racist framing, practices, and institutions.

“ The ease of not being aware of privilege is an aspect of privilege itself, what some call “the luxury of obliviousness” (or in philosophy, “epistemic privilege”). Awareness requires effort and commitment. Being able to command the attention of lower-status individuals without having to give it in return is a key aspect of privilege. African Americans for example, have to pay close attention to whites and white culture and get to know them well enough to avoid displeasing them, since whites control jobs, schools, government, the police, and most other resources and sources of power. White privilege gives little reason to pay attention to African Americans or how white privilege affects them.

In other words, as James Baldwin put it “To be white in America means not having to think about it.” We could say the same thing about maleness or any other basis for privilege. So strong is the sense of entitlement behind this luxury that males, whites, and others can feel put upon in the face of even the mildest invitation to pay attention to issues of privilege. “We shouldn’t have to look at this stuff,” they seem to say. “It isn’t fair.