ALTHOUSE ATTACKS! Ann Althouse didn't like what I said about appreciating the privileges into which one is born:

He's reacting to a program that in which government officials are prodding adult citizens to think about how privileged they are. The analogy to a parent-child relationship comes so easily to the left-wing mind.

And what kind of families — back in the olden days — encouraged their kids to think about how lucky they were to be white? Only racist parents would have said anything like that.

Close reading is not one of her strengths. My mother told me to be grateful for my advantages. Recognition that white people have it easier, on average, than black people in this country did not require parental instruction, but could be deduced by observation.

I will answer some of her commenters' questions addressed to me, not in her combox but here, as you are much more likely to actually listen:

How would you like to be black, and growing up in Africa, Edroso?

Compared to what? Assuming that it's better to have been born than not born, which may not be a fair assumption, that condition would beat non-existence and I would make do. But in gaining the material benefits that make life easier, being born white in America is, by any reasonable measure, a huge leg up.

So is having a Protestant work ethic a "privilege"?

Well, it's not like there aren't drawbacks to whiteness. For example, it can seduce some people into believing they are responsible for cultural traditions they did not themselves invent.

Can you imagine cracker ass Edroso getting drafted? You think he's a sissy crybaby now? Can you imagine the coniption fit he'd have? He'd be pulling his white privileges out of every orific of his body.

My reaction would mainly be astonishment, as I am deep into middle age. But if in a few years things get so desperate that they're drafting oldsters, I'll probably be grateful for the three hots and a cot.

Of course, I never got any of that white privilege, not being white, but for some reason I was still expected to score 400 points higher on the SAT than people of other ethnicities to get the same result. Should I have been contemplating that as well, Roy?

All contemplation can be rewarding, though as this complaint supports rather than contradicts my point, I think the challenger might better spend his time reading.