White privilege and the black shield

In 2016 Ebony Magazine published an article that mentioned “black privilege”. “Black privilege” has no official definition, but “white privilege” is defined as: Inherent advantages possessed by a white person on the basis of their race in a society characterized by racial inequality. The article was called: Five bad habits “woke” people need to break.

Number two was: Forgetting to check our privilege.

First the Ebony writer clarified, “We all know there’s no such thing as “black privilege”, meaning there are no inherent advantages possessed by a black person on the basis of their race in American society. This notion is similar to the doctrine that black people can’t be racist because they don’t have the power to be racist. Holders of this doctrine define racism as prejudice plus power. By transferring this definition to “white privilege” what’s meant by the term becomes obvious, the adjective “white” means prejudice and privilege means power. Of course, in this framework, there is no such thing as “black privilege”, because the adjective “black” automatically means underprivileged or powerlessness.

The problem with this framework is equating privilege with negative aspects of power.

Privilege simply means a special right granted a person or particular group, which the Ebony writer acknowledged “woke”…