It was my freshman year of college when I first began to digest the concept of having privilege (unearned advantage) due to being White and male. However, part of it was because I began reading up on the existence of systemic discrimination so I could understand what people meant by "privilege" in that specific context. Had I not been willing to explore those curiosities of my mind, I might have ended up going down an entirely different path.

Another thing we tend to forget about privilege is that it's intersectional -- as in, not solely limited to just race and biological sex. I think that's part of why it was easier for me to comprehend, compared to many other White men...because I definitely HAD the lived experiences of being regularly harassed, triggered, and terrorized due to my identities of being homosexual, gender nonconforming, neurodiverse, conventionally "unattractive," Millennial, and working-class.

So I was able to cognitively process the systemic elements of white supremacy and misogyny -- and how I benefit from them without even having realized it -- by drawing a parallel to the intersectional disadvantages in my life that I already *WAS* aware of.