The first two posts from sirkickyass.
I agree they are dismissive, however, they are not aggressive in any way, but rather, fairly calm and peaceable. You seem to think being dismissed on the issue is the same as being a victim of aggression. Do you think your opinions are so clearly correct that to dismiss them is to be aggressive in and of itself?
As for "meaningful conversation", a conversation that begins in a notion a reverse racism is no more meaningful that one that starts with a notion of a 6000-year-old earth or the earth being flat. These positions are wrong on all the objective evidence. You can have meaningful conversations about why they are wrong, but not if they are wrong.
Of course you have every right to an opinion. You don't have any right to have that opinion treated as being relevant, interesting, accurate, or viable. You have to earn those designations.
First, I want to say that I completely believe you regarding your intent. I'm sure you had no intention of advertising your privilege, and I don't think you would ever try to defend being racist.
One thing to keep in mind is that privilege in this context (white privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege, able-bodied privilege, etc.) is different from superiority. White superiority is an active position that someone might defend; white privilege is a gift that you often don't realize you are being given. We (collectively) didn't ask for teachers to call on us more, give us more encouragement, and spend more time with us than with our black peers; but we responded to the attention, regardless. We don't ask policemen to search our cars less and give us fewer traffic tickets, but they do it anyhow. We are the beneficiaries of dozens of quick judgments of the course of every week, to the degree that on the few occasions when we don't get that benefit, it feels as if we are wronged.
Privilege is a cocoon; it was wrapped around you before you could walk, and it insulates you and protects you from threats you never perceive. People who lack one or more of your privileges don't get that protection. That's why the notion of reverse racism is so flawed; no matter how any individual treats you, they do not get protected by the same cocoon you have been sheltered by your whole life.
