I’d say that it is not a matter of knowing it, but of agreeing on how much it matters. True, being “normal” (that is, looking, talking and having habits that put us in a majority) can be an advantage. But it doesn’t mean that said advantage is so important that it has a significant impact on our life, and certainly not in all aspects of it. Do people suffer from the fact that the “skin color” crayon is mostly understood to mean beige? Do southpaws suffer from not easily finding left-handed scissors? Did my grandma (at 4 foot 11) suffer from not being able to reach the top shelf? We are rarely in the majority on every aspect; that does not mean we endure systematic discrimination in the instances where we are not.

When it comes to skin color, it is of course more serious. The United States had a long history of discrimination based on skin color, and despite the progress made since the civic rights battles of the ‘60s, there are still important echoes of racism pervading society. But how much these echoes impact society in general (how much racism truly is systemic), and how much they reflect local problems or socio-economic conditions is not that clear-cut.

I’d argue that being poor has a massively more important and detrimental effect on someone’s quality of life than one not being caucasian. Ditto for being less than handsome, fat, uneducated, socially awkward or living in an economically disadvantaged region.

People have always, and will always, have a natural tendency to distinguish “them” from “us”... we are a tribal sort of creature. Skin color is only one of the factors that can influence our seeing someone else as being part of our group or not, and while in some situations it has a lot of weight, sometimes it doesn’t matter at all. Lecturing unemployed workers in an economically challenged county that’s 99% caucasian on white privilege is not only pointless, it also angers them. They don’t feel privileged at all, and they will resent being told they should feel guilty about something that’s irrelevant to their own daily reality. Worse, they will probably also tend to resent those doing the lecturing and the ones they claim to represent, thus leading not to more social equality and acceptance, but to more hostility and division.

“White privilege” is a very broad term that conflates many different social problems not particularly related to skin color, and its implied connection to the horrors of slavery is both very polarizing and unlikely to lead to anything good. As Warmonger said, the concept and the reaction to it helped elect Donald Trump.

Linda McMahon steps down from the Small Business Administration to head a pro-Trump Super PAC. Kick a bunch of money Trump's way and you get appointed to a meaningless government post (the SBA exists to ensure banks don't lose out for lending money for start-ups) and get rewarded with a bigger job that filters money to your super-rich buddies. And, hey, who cares about the business practices of your own company?

The McMahon's and Trump go way back, with Wrestlemania 4 and 5 being held in Atlantic City, with Trump sponsorship, and his involvement in pro wrestling angles, in the 00s. The McMahons donated something like $5 million to trumps phony charity, which got her the SBA gig, after two failed campaigns for the Senate, in Connecticut (where the WWE's history was a major factor in torpedoing her campaign). She became one of Trump's cabinet of butt-kissers and did F-all in the agency (which does F-all to really stimulate small business development) and now gets to head a con to funnel more money to the Cheese Monster. Not bad for a carnie.

The McMahon business model and Trump's are near-duplicates. Screw the workers, keep the money in the family, accept responsibility for nothing.

  

I would be thrilled to be proven wrong and hear a cogent and persuasive answer, but if past history to date is much indication, they can't or won't. This is not a blanket statement by any means. It's just that in my personal experience, the only way to reconcile all of that is to...well, ignore it. Someone please change my mind.

Anybody have a copy of Secret Oranges#1? Good issue. Features the secret oranges of several notorious super-villains, including the Mexican Boarder; Dee Mocracy; and the Mueller.

Coming in the next issue:

"The Secret Orange of Cancer!"

SPOILER ALERT: Windmill Noise...

"If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, okay? Rerrrr rerrrr!"

Ah, yes, the famous "Inanity War" saga with the Celestial Maralago.