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White Privilege is an Illusion

A simple rebuttal that anyone can understand.

Mike Treanor
7 min readJan 29, 2020

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By calling something a privilege, we cheat ourselves day by day out of the rights we all have. Being treated respectfully, and our other rights that our American ancestors fought and died for, are not given to us in a special package addressed to only a few. If we accept that there is an express lane reserved for some special type of person, we are admitting that they are ‘more’ in some way … and that we are less. Do not sell so cheaply that which was won so dearly.

I just happened to spot this short post. It said ‘single paragraph’ and ‘simple,’ so I thought my coffee starved brain could hang on long enough to make it through. It was, as advertised, simple and easy to understand. I offer a rebuttal

… but I think it misses the most important part of the discussion. This imagined ‘treatment’ by police, which is documented to exist at a higher rate for people of color, is not some special ‘privilege.’ It is the right of every American. This is a minimum standard we seek, not a special privilege.

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Mike Treanor

Mike is a software developer, chemist, motivational speaker, parent, and musician who writes about creativity and human nature.