Jimmy Kimmel confronts his own white privilege, admitting it's "easy to get defensive" when the phrase comes up

Kimmel said the first time he heard the phrase white privilege, he was defensive, too. "To me, white privilege was what Donald Trump had, a wealthy father and a silver spoon in his mouth," Kimmel said in his Tuesday monologue. "It wasn’t what I grew up with. I rejected it because I didn’t understand what white privilege meant. But I think I do now.” Kimmel then proceeded to explain white privilege. “People who are white, we don’t have to deal with negative assumptions being made about us based on the color of our skin,” he said. “It rarely happens, if ever. Whereas black people experience that every day. And please don’t tell me you don’t ever make assumptions about people based on the color of their skin, because I don’t believe it. We all do. I know I have. I’m embarrassed to say it, but I have.” He then urged his white viewers to “imagine, if you can, how frustrating it must be to have to prove yourself, to be something other than what people assume you probably are, every day. Sometimes multiple times every day. Imagine how frustrating it must be, to get handcuffed, or frisked, or pulled over, just because you’re black. Even if the cop looks in the car and goes ‘OK, everything’s fine, have a nice day, how do you swallow that and move on with your day? I don’t know about you, but that would make me furious.” Kimmel offered a definition that has appeared online: "'White privilege doesn’t mean your life hasn’t been hard. It just means the color of your skin isn’t one of the things that makes it harder.’ Wherever you stand, I don’t see how you can argue with that.”

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