The term "white privilege" is a bit of a misnomer. What it's mean to convey is the fact that a white person is much less likely to get passed over for something than a person of color. It doesn't mean an actual privilege, more the lack of a hardship.
That doesn't mean one didn't experience hardship, just that it's unlikely to have been due to the color of your skin.
Which may have been true in 1970s, today I get told in emails to pass over White and Asian candidates because we need more diversity. The sheer hubris of putting racism in writing makes me feel like I'm in a topsy turvy 1950s.
It is true in 2024 also, just that you have to choose a location different from US; go to Southeast Asia to see it in action everyday, where everyone is extra nice to white people - sales people are extra polite, people laugh extra hard at everything white people say, the lady at the counter pays first attention to white people among the group of folks waiting and so on. I have heard white people say "I loved the experience, everyone was so nice"... Of course it was, of course they were.
To be fair, there are flip sides to this too e.g
white folks are more likely to be overcharged, more likely to be subject of scams etc but that's just the other side of the same coin.
And so the cosmic scales apparently require that this person be discriminated against, not on the basis of anything they’ve done, or have had done for them, but because of the colour of their skin and what wasn’t done to them. Regardless of all other hardships and lack of opportunity they may have experienced their whole life.
I still don’t follow the logic, if you’re claiming there is some to be followed.
> And so the cosmic scales apparently require that this person be discriminated against [...] because of the colour of their skin and what wasn’t done to them.
The scale was already tipped because of race. Is it unfair to try to tip it back? Is there no way at all to reasonably apply pressure?
Even if your answer is that it's unfair, it should be easy for you to understand why some people try.
And if any attempt to adjust the scale counts as "discrimination", then "discrimination" is not necessarily a dirty word.
> not on the basis of anything they’ve done, or have had done for them, [...] Regardless of all other hardships and lack of opportunity they may have experienced their whole life.
Well, if you had a way to measure that, it would help a lot. But if you don't have a way to measure it, I feel like disregarding it is probably reasonable.
"Don't try to fix problem X, because for some people problem X compensates for problem Y" is a pretty bad reason not to try to fix X. (With problem X being racism and problem Y being the other discrimination this white poor person faced.)
That doesn't mean one didn't experience hardship, just that it's unlikely to have been due to the color of your skin.