Is the term "White Privilege" a racially divisive term

[Lizzie Poppet]

63. Not, I'd argue, when it's the more intuitive interpretation.

The term "privilege" in this sort of context carries a lot of negative connotations (think: entitled assholes with Thurston Howell III accents, to use a deliberately exaggerated example). That's the sort of connotation that someone unfamiliar with the academic usage of "white privilege" will very often read into the usage. Most of those readers will not, obviously, actually be some sort of entitled 1%'er type, and will quite naturally reject the appellation (and quite likely any arguments associated with it, that being human nature).


If the point of the usage is verbal aggression or suchlike, then it's a great usage. If the point is actually doing something to redress the problems associated with white privilege, it's a terrible, counterproductive usage.