Racism is

[MellowDem]

9. I generally agree with you...

but I think some things some liberals say about racism or privilege actually feed into this right wing narrative of white victimization.

For one thing, privilege is much more complicated than just white privilege in the context of the US, but it is often spoke of as a sort of end all be all, which obviously leads to glaring examples of where "white privilege" doesn't have the same meaning.

Another, this idea that blacks "cannot be racist", which I understand comes down to definitions of racism, but under the vast majority of people's understanding of racism, it's a pretty silly idea that drives a lot of them away from liberals IMHO. And again, it's such a localized, simplistic view (can Asians be racist? How about someone who is half black and half white?) that is easily problematized so that it comes across as an excuse rather than a very specific definition of racism often used in academia in a very specific context of time and place.

It's very probable some of your ancestors were subject to slavery, and that most people, of whatever color, have slave holders among their ancestors. The point is that it wasn't as recent, but it's a point that needs to be made because the right will jump all over it.

Basically, a lot of discussions of privilege and race are so provincial that they're easily undermined by the right who want to push their narrative of white victimization.

Really, I see so many people get sidetracked by trying to somehow prove hypothetically how it's IMPOSSIBLE for white people to be victims that the much better and easier argument that white people are victimized much less compared to others in our society is just ignored.