“you’re white”
“you’re male”
“you’re privileged”
“you’re part of the problem”
“you won’t admit to being part of the problem”
just who has been making “many accusations”?
Aren’t you white?
Aren’t you male?
If yes to either (or both!) then yes you’re privileged. As am I. As are a significant percentage of people here.
I wouldn’t even really have a problem if you left it at, “You receive certain benefits for being white or a man,” whatever those benefits are, but to just say that “you’re privileged” completely disregards his entire life experience, which you’re supposedly all about listening to. You don’t know if the person you’re talking to is an orphan, is bankrupt, has AIDS, is mentally ill, got laid off, is a drug addict, has a terminally ill spouse or child etc. etc. I’d say that those things, to name a few, would definitely mean that someone is not privileged, even if they are white or male. If you just assume that someone’s privileged based on their race, gender, and nothing else, then you’re likely to piss people off.
Calling someone privileged doesn’t mean they’re privileged in every way. Far from it. You can have some privileges and not others. The term “white privilege” does not mean white people are completely privileged in all ways, just in racial ways. I’d argue that’s why the “white” codifier is there in the first place.