Thanks for not denying that privilege exists, and for pointing out that some of it is likely due to the unconscious bias we can politely dub &quot;human nature&quot;!  E.g. we hire people who look like us, even if they&#x27;re not the best people for the job...<p>You know, in situations like this I&#x27;m often reminded of that Upton Sinclair quote, &quot;It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.&quot;<p>I think a lot of the pushback against awareness and understanding of privilege comes from that idea.<p>Being told that you&#x27;re getting some lucky break <i>because</i> you&#x27;re a hetero white dude, whether it&#x27;s preferential treatment in job interview callbacks or orchestra hiring or any of the million other things that have been so insanely thoroughly documented..  well, kinda draws attention to the possibility that, if we <i>were</i> living in a meritocratic world, suddenly all us lucky white dudes would have to compete with a much wider group of people.  A man&#x27;s salary and all that.<p>As far as swinging the other way and <i>preferring</i> people for their minority status, quite frankly, I&#x27;m totally ok with doing so for a generation or two, since I would at least be trying to compensate for hundreds of years of systemic bias <i>against</i> those beleaguered groups of people.  Forever?  Naw.  For now?  Sure, even if it means I personally would lose out on contracts or whatever.<p>But our disagreement here is something to work out in the political arena, not something I think it makes sense to try and bridge from first principles or anything; I at least used to feel the way you do, and came to change my mind about it only through a lot of life experience that told me it made sense to change my mind.