WHITE PRIVILEGE Definition & Meaning

white privilege

[ wahyt priv-uh-lij, priv-lij, hwahyt ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

the unearned and mostly unacknowledged societal advantage that members of the dominant white racial group have and members of nonwhite groups do not, separate from but compounding with wealth, income, class, education, and other demographic factors that form individual identities:
One aspect of white privilege is never thinking about your race, because most things in society are designed with whiteness as the normal default.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of white privilege¹

First recorded in 1920–25

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

White privilege was not bestowed on the Irish automatically or all at once; well into the 20th century, British attitudes toward Ireland could legitimately be described as racist, and a faint hangover of bigotry is discernible to this day.

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Training sessions emphasising concepts like "white privilege" and racial bias have drawn particular scrutiny.

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Wilson's response was to argue that to "talk about white privilege is envious and sinful."

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He compared people who object to white privilege to children "glancing around the room in order to see what everyone else received" on Christmas and "squabbling over the presents."

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The order also instructs agencies to develop a strategy to eliminate classroom instruction on gender identity, referred to as "gender ideology," as well as "unconscious bias" and "white privilege," arguing that the concepts erode critical thinking and undermine "national unity."

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