“No one cares if you never apologize for your white male privilege.”

I hate the privelege of being totally unaware of my own privilegeHere’s a story:

A 20-year-old college freshman wrote an essay for one of his college publications and was subsequently interviewed on Fox News, written about in the New York Times, and had the essay republished by TIME. Yet, he doesn’t understand why anyone thinks he benefits from white male privilege.

Honestly, that right there is all I have to say about Princeton student Tal Fortgang’s exercise in point-missing “Why I’ll Never Apologize for My White Male Privilege.” 

I can think of no better proof of said privilege than the fact that Fortgang’s piece, which completely misunderstands the concept of privilege and how it works, is treated as worthy of serious discussion. And to be clear — since this is one of the many points Fortgang is confused on — I do not blame him for that fact. (He’s a college freshman; he’s allowed to bloviate on things he knows nothing about — it’s practically required. TIME, on the other hand, has no excuse.) I don’t think Fortgang should have to apologize for the fact that his uniformed opinion goes viral any more than he should have to apologize for his gender or race. I just hope that one day he’ll learn enough about the world to start questioning the myth of American meritocracy — and come to see this whole episode as a case in point.

But if you want a more comprehensive take, read the rest of Mychal’s response at The Nation.

Maya DusenberyMaya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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