Is white privilege real? To what extent?

[paulpablo]

That's the privilege of being in a country with other people of your own race, the advective "white" isn't that constant condition of privilege, it's being in the majority that's the privilege.

Women are in the majority, but in the majority of cases men are more privileged than women.

Privilege is not directly proportional to whether you are part of a majority. Conversely unconscious prejudices are not proportional to how much of a minority you are. It stems from your culture's history. America has a relatively recent history with slavery and had segregation within living memory. I find that quite stunning, as is almost on a par with the European country of Lichtenstein only giving women the vote in 1984.

I was very surprised when I moved back to southern England from Scotland and my now husband encountered similar kind of prejudices because of his Scottish accent. Snide comments were made for no reason in simple interactions. I've lived in England for most of my life and never realised that happened. That never happened in Wales though. It was entirely a product of the culture's history.

That's true enough.
This answers your question again you asked why would you not believe a demographic if they said you were privileged. Because like in this instance you might disagree with them.

I said the majority are privileged, you pointed out that they aren't always.

I was wrong to simply point to being in the majority of causing the privilege in all instances, because it doesn't, but by the same token being white doesn't always equal privilege in every situation in every country.