I understand the concept, and there are certainly situations where race affects how people are perceived or treated. Individual racism is real and wrong. But 'white privilege' as a systemic explanation for outcomes has serious logical problems.

The biggest challenge to the theory is the success of non-white groups. Asian Americans have the highest median household income ($108,700 vs. $81,060 for white Americans), the highest educational attainment, and the lowest incarceration rates in the country. Indian Americans earn over $130,000 in median household income. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino Americans all out-earn white Americans.

If the system were designed to privilege white people, these groups would not be succeeding at higher rates. Their success suggests that other factors — cultural emphasis on education, family stability, work ethic, savings habits — matter more than the color of one's skin.

The concept of privilege also erases the struggles of millions of white Americans. Appalachian communities, rural white towns, and working-class white neighborhoods have devastating rates of poverty, opioid addiction, and family breakdown. A poor white kid in a trailer park in West Virginia has very little 'privilege' compared to the child of a Black surgeon or an Asian tech executive.

Class, family structure, and geography are far better predictors of life outcomes than race. The Brookings Institution identified three factors that virtually eliminate poverty regardless of race: finish high school, get a full-time job, and wait until 21 and marriage to have children. Among people who do all three, only 2% are in poverty.

Instead of a framework that divides people by race and assigns collective guilt, we should focus on the specific, actionable factors that determine individual success — factors that people of all races can influence.