No, the poster you are responding to is absolutely right -- we need a better language for this thing we are talking about today. You again are getting all hung up on wine and roses (things being <i>good</i>) when that&#x27;s not what is being discussed by your partner in this discussion.<p>It&#x27;s worth going back to the original essay discussing &quot;white privilege&quot; -- the text can be found at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ted.coe.wayne.edu&#x2F;ele3600&#x2F;mcintosh.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ted.coe.wayne.edu&#x2F;ele3600&#x2F;mcintosh.html</a>. A few highlights:<p>4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed. 
 5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
 6. When I am told about our national heritage or about civilization, I am shown that people of my color made it what it is. 
 12. I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes or not answer letters without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race. 
 13. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial. 
 14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race. 
 15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.<p>Irish people in American get to do all those things today, as do Italian-Americans! When&#x27;s the last time you were called a credit to your race? Me, never -- even though once in the past, the US government tried to deport a Finn under the Oriental Exclusion Act (John Swan, 1909) and Finns were regarded as backward and slow. Times change and that hasn&#x27;t been a problem lately.