Kevin, I appreciate the time and thought you’ve taken to craft your reply, and I regret tht I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to respond until now.

Were you surprised at how vehemently others disagreed with you, particularly the Medium administrators who had your reply to alto removed from the site? It should be patently obvious to you — as an intelligent person at a “top tier public university” — that suggesting the person with whom you disagree should castrate himself because he is a “sackless pussy” betrays the most low-brow of debating skills. Nevertheless, since fools rush in where angels fear to tread, I’m going to give this another try.

First, I disagree with your contention that “arguing senselessness with sense is never effective.” That’s a specious argument, revealing an attitude of superiority and condescension that proves the point of white privilege.

No one—not the @jayydodd, the writer of the original article,

nor alto, who replied to jayy enthusiastically,

nor I, think anyone should be ashamed of being white. You should be proud of who you are (if cognisant of the fact that you really had nothing to do with it. The point of recognizing white privilege isn’t to foster shame.

The fact that you’d “make national news and be pinned a racist” if you wrote an article titled Black Men Are Unimpressive might be true, but it doesn’t prove white privilege is “nonsense” or “an enemy to true equality.” It actually shows just how much privilege you (unknowingly) have. Like Marie Antoinette, whose infamous comment “Let them eat cake” in response to learning that the poor had no bread revealed a similar insensitivity to privilege. OK, there’s no record of her actually saying that, but you get my point, don’t you? The reason that was offensive isn’t because rich people shouldn’t be allowed to express divergent opinions. It’s offensive because she didn’t even realize how absurdly privileged she actually was.

But you’re right. Every person is born with advantages and disadvantages. However, some—the wealthy, people with inherited titles, and those with the genetic advantages like height, beauty, or (as is being argued here) race—are obviously better off than others. They must also bear the responsibility of privilege. Noblesse oblige, so to speak.

Yes, beautiful women certainly do have life easier in many ways. It should also be recognized that they’re often treated as mere objects for men’s use (as models of privilege, for example). To follow your argument—of course a woman should not be ashamed if she’s beautiful, but it would be damned offensive if she arrogantly walked through life unaware of her obvious advantages (hint).

What I’m suggesting is that you try to gain some understanding of the disadvanted of being a member of a social minority—whether that’s as

• an African-American who, much more often than a white person, gets pulled over by the police for no other reason than you’re DWB, or as
• a beautiful woman who has to daily suffer coarse remarks made to you by crude men, or as
• a young man who’s beaten and bruised because of your affectional orientation.

Whether you know it or not, all of those things happen in your top tier university town, in “the Land of the Free,” where people like you value diversity and equality. But you couldn’t really know what that would be like because of your advantages as a white male. And because you choose not to acknowledge just much more more privilege you have than others who have are trying to climb the same ladder, but with burdens you can barely imagine.

All we white men can do is listen to the “other.” With respect. I mean truly listen, without bristling because you feel offended by legitimate expressions of hurt and anger, or because for a brief moment you think like you’re not being treated as you should.

In other words, there will never be enough bread until you get the fuck over yourself, Marie!