General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Liberal Racism: 25 Things I Learned After I Wrote About ISIS and White Racism at the Daily Kos [View all]tblue37
(65,391 posts)nevertheless get their backs up when the topic of white privilege is raised, just as too many liberal men get their backs up if someone dares to mention that male privilege also exists.
I think part of the problem is similar to the problem we face when trying to get creationists to understand that evolutionary theory is settled science, even if there remains some discussion and debate around some of the specific details of how evolution progresses through adaption and natural selection. (For example, Gould's concept of punctuated equilibrium is an argument with traditional notions of slow and steady evolution, but it doesn't deny the reality of evolution.)
But creationists jump on that word "theory," which has one meaning in science and quite another in lay usage. To them, the fact that it is called a "theory" means it is "just" an opinion. (Of course, they wouldn't argue that gravity doesn't exist because the laws governing how gravity acts are part of a "theory."
Similarly, the word "privilege" is taken by many to mean that someone has it quite easy and gets all sorts of undeserved goodies. That is a hard thing to accept when that supposedly "privileged" person is poor, struggling, exploited, and oppressed by those who hold most of the real power and wealth in society. They don't recognize the myriad ways in which they are exempted from suffering even more abuse and oppression than they already experience, simply because they don't also experience the abuse and oppression that are extra add-ons for people of color or for women.