There is a redefining class privilege as race privilege. Lower and working class white men don't get privileges.

I went to a state school because I didn't have the money to go to an Ivy League school. Turns out when I started my professional career the best firms only hired from the Ivy Leagues. Harvard alums only hired Harvard grads.

We used to call it a 'gentleman's club', because gentlemen didn't need to work, they worked as a hobby and for the prestige.

This was hit home for me when I entered the profession, and it was considered normal to work as an unpaid intern for many years. This eliminated the working class, and only 'upper middle class' people with money could afford to be in my profession. Women, non-white men were excluded, not because of racism or sexism (although that existed) rather it was because of class.

The mechanism is not race, it is class structure, and the belief in the old English social hierarchy.

The white working class man feels besieged because he is excluded from the benefits of affirmative action and other social programs, and has no job security and receives no privileges for being 'white'. Using the term 'white privilege' just pushes these men into the waiting arms of the Republican party. Democrats should rethink this strategy of ostracizing the working class.