Not to derail this entire thing and I do agree with basically everything you have said, but there's a great interview of Oprah where she explains that she tried to go shopping in a luxury store and they locked the door and ignored her, then unlocked it and let other (white) customers in when she left. The store clerks' defense was that it was because they were robbed once. Of course, once corporate found out about it they tried to give Oprah the stuff she wanted to buy for free, but I doubt they'd have done the same for you or me.

So, yes, even Oprah has to deal with this shit.

I definitely agree that statistics can't be applied to individuals, but I think it misses the point. When someone says something like "whites are privileged in western society" they aren't pretending that every single white person has it better than every black person. They are saying that if you knew absolutely nothing about a black person and a white person and you had to bet real money on which one would grow up to be "successful," you wouldn't pick the black person unless you were trying to throw your money away to make a statement.

I honestly don't think everyone is racist, but when was the last time you were spat on and called a nigger? For me it was last weekend. That particular event had never happened to me before and it will hopefully never happen again, but what really shocked me was that I wasn't even surprised at the time. I remember thinking "This is gross," and then, "probably someday far in the future this won't happen anymore." and that's really it. My white friends just don't experience life the same way, even though we're all "the same" by other demographics. The difference in experience is what "privilege" is about, at least when I refer to it, which is never because it's usually impossible to discuss at all. I wasn't spat on because of white privilege or whatever shit. I was spat on because some guy is a racist dick. However, now I get to worry about it and how prevalent it is and whether or not I should be more careful. Joe McWhiteGuy doesn't, other than thinking "Woah, that sounds miserable" when I tell him about it.