Why I don't think the phrase/argument white privilege is effective.

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69. It's divisive...

For proof: see this thread.

Sure, on average white people are better off than black people on average, but as my statistics professor pointed out: "if my feet are in a bucket of ice, and my head is in the oven, on average I'm confortable.

The thing is that there are plenty of examples of white people discriminating against other white people. The Irish were brought to this country as slaves and the Okies in California escaping from the dust bowl were widely discriminated against. The problem is that people are jerks, but white people hardly have the monopoly on being jerks, and they don't direct that 'jerkiness' exclusively toward black people. For the most part, the folks that are jerks are jerks to most people.

Bickering about it doesn't do any good. I know that there is an unreasonable amount of abuse toward black people. I also know that it isn't me that's doing the abusing. Browbeating the people who would be your allies if you weren't browbeating them seems unwise to me.

I'd rather someone have a plan to move us all forward by getting along, rather than a long drawn out discussion trying to make the folks that might be perceived as being a little better off, feel guilty (I guess that's the goal).

I wish people were nicer to each other, regardless of race, creed or national origin.