Plenty of people have been up in arms around the recent verdict in Ferguson. I'm not going to be talking about that because I haven't taken the time to sit through days of testimony and evidence examinations. It does, however, provide the context for this next (paraphrased) comment:

Why are 99% of the people who say stop talking about race white, and why are 99% of the people who stop talking about privilege male?

I think I can partially answer this, but I'd like the following cards to be on the table first:

• I am a middle class, cisgendered, caucasian male whose only deviation from the generic image is a lack of religious affiliation.
• I believe that privilege exists.
• I believe that systemic discrimination exists against women.
• I believe that systemic discrimination exists against black people and minorities.
• While I know that discrimination exists, I've never really experienced it personally in any meaningful way.
• While I know that privilege exists, I still loathe the phrase, "Check your privilege," for a host of reasons that are my own.

With that out of the way, we can try and answer the question: "Why do white people hate the idea of 'privilege'?" I think it comes down to this: nobody likes to admit they're playing life on easy mode. To make the through process clear, we'll be looking at it in the setting of a dialog between A and B, where A says, "B, your views on matter X are [irrelevant|distorted] because you are privileged."B hears that his/her life is privileged, and takes this to mean, "You've never really struggled for anything." B quickly thinks back to all the instances where he/she has done just that. Images of sleepless nights wondering how to pay for heat or food, memories of a contemplated suicide when things were bad, thoughts of an abusive childhood, or any of a number of negative things float past the accused's mind. The first, perhaps universal human response, is to reject this assertion. "How dare you make any judgements about my life?" B views the comment as marginalizing his/her accomplishments and trivializing the difficulties in his/her life. B has forgotten that anyone outside the privileged group has to deal with all these life difficulties AND has to worry about things like 'being shot by a police officer for holding a puppy like a gun' or 'being accused of making her way to the top by sleeping around'. It is possible that A does not recognize B's trials and tribulations, and that would indeed be a point of fault. However, while B is focusing on this being the case, A is hoping to assert that the B's lack of exposure to the other negatives in addition to his/her problems should be reason to reconsider his/her viewpoints. Meanwhile, B is now on the mental defensive, either discrediting the argument, attacking the messenger, or some other standard fair cognitive dissonance effect. (Basically the same things that allow people to believe conspiracy theories.) Now both sides are angry and grasping for any verbal ammunition to hurl at their newfound best adversary.As much as I personally dislike the idea that my struggles are meager and insignificant compared to most other people, there's something specific to the phrase, "check your privilege," that I dislike. It has been abused by certain people, the same kind of radicalized subgroup which does a disservice to its parent cluster, like the Tea Party in the Republicans, the Fundamentalists of Christianity, or the misanthropes of the feminism movement. I dislike the phrase because it shuts down conversation suddenly. At best, it