A very quick comment on the diffusion of white, male privilege...

[AverageJoe90]

46. GC, while I realize full well that I, as a "white" "cis" guy that I am certainly more fortunate.....

Than a Person of Color, or an LGBT person, or someone who is disabled, etc., who face more societal disadvantages on average, I have recently begun to question if the use of the word "privilege" is really all that applicable in the case of the United States.

"There seems to be an attempt by some to say that the problem with society is always the "inherently bad" guys who aren't liberal, progressive white males."

The sad truth is, this has exactly been the large majority of the problem, particularly where Civil Rights & feminism were concerned. Of course, there certainly are fools and assholes out there who do actively uphold such(about 15% of the population, virtually all of them hard or far-right), and other dupes who unknowingly do so(about 25%, give or take a few percent, some of them conservative, but some moderates as well).

Little things that you don't necessarily notice aggregate together with others to create a massive social, legal and political influence.

True, but again, most of this is greatly reinforced by a small group of influential reactionaries & opprotunists for some perceived gain, whether it be monetary or otherwise, with plenty of fools to go along and help them.

Not being consistently viewed as a sexual object is something men benefit from every single day of their lives. Not being profiled as a criminal because of their skin color is a benefit white persons possess every day they are alive.

This isn't so much a benefit for anyone(except perceived as such by a reactionary few!).....here in America, the latter is the norm.....rather, it's a *disadvantage* faced by women and POCs respectively.

...are unwilling to admit that...

This is not at all what I've seen; to the contrary, those who have the most power are typically proud of it and will do anything to hold on to it, even if they're willing to disguise their intentions at first.

So when we talk about the privileged white male, that is not an attack on you personally as an independent human being.

I don't believe this is the case here, no. But, sadly, it does happen. There are a few people who do abuse the term to bash white people; and that needs to be called out.

When a person of a truly privileged class denies these benefits, power is multiplied and the issue is made worse.

Here's the problem, though. This whole "benefits" argument falls apart completely when you realize that all things like racism, sexism, etc., societal or institutional(there IS a difference, btw) have ever done is divide people and set us against one another for the gains of a select few, perceived or otherwise at least in this country.

Let me ask you a question: did the vast majority of Germans benefit from anti-Semitism, and later, the Holocaust under the Nazis, whilst their livelihoods were being plundered & trashed by the real criminals?
Do the people in Israel, today, benefit from anti-Palestinian racism & other prejudice?
Do the people of Iran as a whole benefit from the institutionalize discrimination against "undesirables&quot such as Jews and Zoroastrians!), which remains widespread today, while the Mullahs continue to misrule & oppress them all?
Do the French people as a whole benefit from the problems brought on by anti-Islamic discrimination that's been happening?
Did the Japanese people as a whole benefit from the ethnic cleansing & mass-murder of Chinese people in the '30s, or discrimination against Koreans in more recent times?