On White Privilege...
There are certain phrases that, though accurate in meaning, suffer from an unfortunate marketing problem. “White privilege” is among them. One could say it is a victim of its own linguistic imprecision: true in essence, but awkward at the dinner table.
Because when you explain white privilege to a white person they usually nod their head in agreement. They get it. They understand that, in America, there are things I have to deal with as a black person that they will simply never have to experience. Even the most virulent racist will concede this point. The reality is acknowledged. The words are what troubles them.
Calling this concept “privilege” makes it sound like something fun. Like a spa membership. But white privilege doesn’t feel like privilege. It feels like not having to deal with shit. If a white guy is driving down the street and sees police beating the brakes off a Black man, he doesn’t look out the window and say, “Wow, what a privilege I have.” He just mutters, “Damn... that’s some shit niggas have to deal with,” and keeps driving.
And that, right there, is the most accurate definition of white privilege I’ve ever heard. White privilege is simply shit niggas have to deal with. That’s it. That’s the formula. Simple. Honest. Undeniable.
The problem isn’t the principle. It’s the slogan. Liberals (God bless them) could fumble a message in an empty room. The architects of modern progressivism have never met a righteous cause they could not obscure with dreadful phrasing. These well-meaning souls, so rich in empathy and reusable shopping bags, often fail to grasp the power of naming
Instead of saying “police reform,” they went with “Defund the Police”, a phrase that sounds less like a policy idea and more like something a confused villain in a Batman comic would yell before running into traffic.
Instead of talking about healthy masculinity, they gave us “Toxic Masculinity”, which sounds like a new X-Men character. And “white privilege,” rather than illuminating an imbalance, feels to many like an accusation hurled across a dinner party. It sounds accusatory when it's actually just observational. It is not the content of these ideas that offends. It is the costuming.
So I have a solution. A compromise. A deal, if you will. And it’s built around one central truth I’ve come to accept:
White people really, really want to say the n-word.
They do. Not all of them. Not out loud. But many, deep down, in the quiet of their souls, hold a gentle, burning curiosity. They whisper it in their heads while listening to Kendrick. They wonder if mouthing it at a concert counts. They yearn to speak in AAVE.
So here it is. The Great Compromise.
Let’s give white people the n-word on one condition: they can only use it when acknowledging systemic inequality.
If a white person witnesses injustice, if they see gentrification, or redlining, or a man being arrested for looking “aggressive” while existing, they can say: “That’s some shit niggas have to deal with.”
And only then. And only in that specific phrase.
It’s a package deal: say the n-word, admit the privilege. It is a bargain. A sacrament of awareness. The phrase becomes not a slur, but a mirror reflecting both the speaker’s detachment from the experience, and their willingness to name it.
Some Examples:
A Black family denied a mortgage despite perfect credit?
“That’s some shit niggas have to deal with.”
Black children being improperly labeled a distraction in the classroom as early as kindergarten?
“That’s some shit niggas have to deal with.”
Donald Trump becoming president again after literally no minority group wanted this to happen?
“That’s some shit niggas have to deal with.”
Maybe if we tie their deepest, unspoken desire to their shallowest, unacknowledged advantage, we’ll finally get somewhere.
Because at the end of the day, we don’t need more performative guilt. We don’t need tears, or TikTok apologies, or twenty-minute podcast episodes about “learning and unlearning.” We don’t need Robin DiAngelo. We just need the truth, said plainly.
And the truth is: There’s a whole lot of shit niggas have to deal with. And white people... usually don’t.