A freshman at Princeton University published an essay slamming those who say he is only successful because he is white.
In an essay titled "Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege," freshman Tal Fortgang says it's wrong for people to assume it was easy for him to obtain his achievements and position in life because of the societal notion of "white privilege."
"I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive," Fortgang, 20, wrote in his essay published last month in The Princeton Tory.
Fortgang, from New Rochelle, New York, explains that he comes from a hardworking family of Holocaust survivors. His grandfather, a business owner, endured years of hard labor in Siberia after he escaped the Nazis in Poland. His grandmother arrived in America after surviving a Poland concentration camp. His father worked for 25 years to support his wife and kids, sacrificing time he wanted to spend with his family.
"That's the problem with calling someone out for the 'privilege' which you assume has defined their narrative. You don't know what their struggles have been, what they may have gone through to be where they are," Fortgang wrote.
The freshman's essay has been lauded by the conservative community, receiving tweets praising his courage, according to Yahoo! Shine. One site, The College Fix, dubbed him the "Poster Child for 'White Privilege,' " in an article.
Others rolled their eyes at the Ivy League student's essay, arguing that Fortgang does not understand the concept of privilege.
"Recognizing the fact that white men benefit from the kinds of racist and sexist structures on which American society is built isn't meant to diminish his accomplishments," Columbia University students Dunni Oduyemi and Parul Guliani wrote, according to Yahoo! Shine.
"It's meant to remind us that white men don't have an inherent predilection for success- the odds have just been stacked in their favor."
