In 1960 I started full time work at age 17 working as a office aide (lowest paying office job) for a very large, very old corporation (founded in 1816). However, no blacks were hired for office jobs at that time. The only black workers in the corporate offices were janitors, "porters", and "charwomen". All other black employees were "laborers" doing heavy duty, hard manual work, primarily in outdoor environments.

When I started the company had two corporate employee social groups... one for black employees and one for white employees. Social events (picnics, dances, etc.) were segregated. The black employee social group was eventually done away with by the late 60' or early 70's.

Other barriers also started falling. The first black office worker was hired into the department where I worked. She may as well have been an alien from Mars. She was not mistreated, but she struggled to be accepted socially. By the late 60's or early 70's blacks started routinely being hired into office jobs by white bosses. By the early 80's or so there were black bosses in the offices. By the late 80's a black engineer was promoted to an executive office. That was a big event for all the black employees.

Given my experiences, I can clearly understand why blacks felt I and other whites had "privileges" not available to them. I can understand that no matter where they looked until the late 70's the chain of command was all white. 

Beyond the workplace, black employees for the most part did not live in the same neighborhoods as white employees. Thus they had less of a chance to see their white colleagues, especially  bosses, at food stores, school functions for their kids, houses of worship, neighborhood social events, etc. during off work hours. This lessened their chances for informal social interaction which white employees took for granted as a natural circumstance.

I could go on but I'll cite one more example. How many blacks money managers are prominent on Wall Street? How hard do you think it was (is?) for a black money manager to get to manage funds like pension funds from corporate America? I can suggest to you based on my experiences, it was not easy for them in the late 80's and early 90's when I was involved with this aspect of corporate finance. Hopefully things have changed for the better now.

Anyway, as I said, the concept of "white privilege" is somewhat understandable to me based on my corporate experiences. 

Regards,

Gene