For years, I have been pointing out the problems with relying on the flimsy idea of “…white privilege” to try to change someone’s way of thinking about neo-diversity issues; to try to change a person’s behavior; to try to engage in productive dialogue that allows different points of view to be expressed.

     Thinking about our collective difficult-days-ahead, one day in March-2017, my tweets @DrNacoste carried my message again.

     #diversity/Talk about white-privilege has not weakened the allure of President Trump’s anti-group rhetoric   

    #diversity/Shouting white-privilege is ineffective– the notion itself allows people to dodge responsibility for bigotry.

    #diversity/White-privilege is a Freudian claim that does not address here-and-now bigotry.

    #diversity/ Pointing to white privilege to try to stop here-and-now bigotry will never work because privilege is not about the here-and-now.

    #diversity/White privilege is crying wolf to not look at the bigotry in the crier’s own life.         

   #diversity/Wolf-crying white-privilege fails the there-are-no-innocent standard for having productive dialogue 

    Understand that I was doing more than tweeting. I was doing more than just pointing out the futile tilting at the windmill of white privilege. Attached to each tweet was my newest and most relevant essay, “Sometime Bigotry is Just Bigotry.”  Part of what I say in that essay is

“Tell me, has all the talk about white privilege been effective in weakening the attractiveness of President Donald Trump’s anti-group rhetoric toward some of our fellow Americans? Not at all, and you know it.

     Why not? It’s simply because the claim of white privilege lets people off the hook. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all know that there are a lot of ways to be privileged in America. For that reason, shouting about white privilege falls on deaf ears. Surely you see that the claim of privilege fits with too many versions of the American dream (that people think are positive). America is a place where you can “…get ahead of, earn more privileges than, other people.” Sure, that ambition is no longer supposed to be racial, but… well…”

 “Sometimes bigotry is just bigotry”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quiet-revolution/201703/sometimes-bigotry-is-just-bigotry