Author here. First off, I didn't use the phrase "white privilege" in the article at all. Privilege is a combination of factors. In my case some of those come fr

Author here. First off, I didn't use the phrase "white privilege" in the article at all. Privilege is a combination of factors. In my case some of those come from being White. Some come from being male. Some from being an American. Others from parents and grandparents on my side of the family and my wife's working hard so that they could have something to hand down to their children. Secondly, I think one way to look at success is as the product of two factors: privilege and work/ability. I'm intelligent and I worked incredibly hard on my startup, but that is only one half of the equation. If I had multiplied those things by a privilege value approaching zero, there is a good chance my success would have also been close to zero. I had a moderately high level of privilege. Many people have significantly more than I do. Many people (including White people) have significantly less. The specific point I was trying to make in the article is that if I had been given less privilege, I do not believe I would have been as successful as I was. And without any privilege, I am fairly certain I would not have been successful at all.