How has use of the term "white privilege" harmed you?

[Shandris]

9. Oh, why not. Nothing better to do at the moment.

Let's start with the basic assumptions in the post, namely that 'white privilege' means 'for people in the same class or status'. It doesn't, and that's my biggest problem with it.

Now that we've separated the generic term from the qualifier that you had to use -- my whole problem with the term in the first place -- the rest is easy to figure out. When people use the phrase without understanding or speaking about other intersectionalities and/or qualifiers that might make a useful conversation, all they succeed in doing is alienating people who would otherwise vote for them. When those people go on to elect Republicans because a group of people are so addicted to a term that barely has usage in academia where it originated let alone in the real world, and those Republicans directly screw over the entirety of a state (Hi, 50% of the nation denied Medicare expansion by Republican governors and still bound by the -rest- of the ACA whether they can afford it or not!), then yah...the term -has- directly harmed people, and its not just white people its harmed. Useful with intersections and qualifiers, harmful as a broadbrush stroke...just like most stereotypes.

Nothing has -ever- been won by pointing to groups and talking about how bad they are as a group. Things get changed when people are individually brought to change their views. Now, occasionally some group dynamics can assist with that, its true. But the larger the brush, the less likely it is to happen -- thats why intersections are so important both to the conversation, and to making sure that the people we're conversing with can relate to what we are sharing with them.

But really I don't see why this is such a horrible opinion. Maybe I'm not in on the right agenda.

Edit: Wow. No responses when I started typing this up, and suddenly a whole bunch of backpatting. Congratulations, I guess.