"White Privilege" is a terrible phrase

It really shouldn't be called “White Privilege”

Semantics does make a difference, and the term “White Privilege” is one of those subtle ones that does a great deal of doing damage.  I get the concept in principle anyway, but the thing is, it isn’t really “Privilege,” or at least I haven’t seen any real examples that I would qualify as “Privilege.”  A “Privilege” is some sort of advantage that you get that the majority of others don’t get for some reason or other.  Commonly a “Privilege” is something that is earned, and when it isn’t earned, it has the idea of favoritism, cronyism, or prejudice.

The first point is that, like it or not, America is still a “White” majority country.  So if the majority of people are treated in a certain way, then the way they are treated is probably close to the average or the norm.  Granted, the idea of “average” and “norm” does have to take into account the disparity of treatment, and if you see that disparity as great, than the idea of “privilege” has greater weight, since the average treatment on whole could be a lot lower.  I don’t think that’s really true, especially if you adjust for income, but if this was the crux of my problem with the term, I’d say it was somewhat nit-picky.

The thing is, when people point out specifics of “White Privilege” it inevitably comes down to what I would call “mistreatment” of minority groups, rather than “privileged treatment” for whites.  Calling it “privilege” to be treated humanely, respectfully, and even compassionately and mercifully is overstating the case.  I don’t think that should be called “privilege.”  That should be called “expected.”  To be fair, it’s not like white people are treated like that all  the time either (particularly if they don’t appear to be part of the right economic group).  Unfortunately, all other things being “equal” (inasmuch as you can measure such things), the darker you are, the more likely you are to experience poor treatment from people and institutions that have power over you.

Privilege is really a bad word for what people are talking about.  The concept of a “Privilege” carries with it the idea of being able to have your “Privilege revoked.”  I don’t think that for most people the idea is for there to be more poor treatment extended towards “White” people, but rather that darker skinned people should be treated better.