Much has been said lately about white privilege. The rise in racial tensions brought about the revelation that WASPs have an invisible advantage over minorities. When I hear this I immediately think of some questions from my own life:

• Was it privilege to grow up in a converted attic?
• Was it privilege that I couldn’t afford to go away to college so I stayed home, worked, and earned a general studies degree at a community college?
• Was it privilege that my wife and I both worked while I earned a Master’s degree?
• Was it privilege when my parents went bankrupt starting their own business?
• Was it privilege when that business survived through hard work and determination?
• Was it privilege when my wife’s Popou came to the US with nothing in the 1930s?
• Was it privilege when my father-in-law put food on the table by shoveling coal into blast furnaces at U.S. Steel?
• Is it privilege that I work three jobs to feed my kids?
• Is it privilege that making ends meet includes no date nights, rare family outings and even rarer vacations?

While privilege of various kinds does exist, the privilege being attacked by some evangelicals today isn’t actually white privilege. It is privilege that has more to do with socio-economic factors than it does with the color of one’s skin. If we are ever to put race problems behind us, it may be wiser to stop attributing every difference to race and look for other, plausible explanations for differing outcomes.