You misunderstand. The whole point is that it's bad and needs to be dispensed with. Imagine telling a child who has just received a gift from her parents, "You didn't earn that, you must give it up or you're evil."
That's what the idea of white privilege is, on a societal level.
That's what the idea of white privilege is, on a societal level.
Furthermore, it's too simplistic. "Whiteness" doesn't exist. There's no white ethnicity. But there is Ango-Saxon, German, French, Spanish, Greek, Polish, Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Scottish, Irish, Ukranian, Russian, (the list goes on), All of these are rolled into "white"
But back to the idea of unearned. The child receiving the gift has not earned it herself, but does she still deserve it? Yes. Because it was the choice of her parents to give it to her, and she has the responsibility to take care of that gift.
This "privilege" is that gift. America was founded by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). It makes sense to talk about WASP privilege, and you could say that White Privilege is used as shorthand for this, except it is NOT used that way. In usage; white skin = white privilege.
So the gift was earned, earned by the ancestors of the british immigrants, and anyone else who came along to America (because white privilege is a very American idea) and made the choice to stay and adapt to the system that was set up. They usually worked very hard to do this.
That hard work was the earning. My mother's parents were both (legal) immigrants to Australia; her father came here with nothing, just another "wog." He worked non stop, depriving himself of all comforts and luxuries for years and years in order to save every dollar.
That's what people have done. I could see my grandparents, I knew them, I saw them working non stop, and still unable to break the habit of saving everything. Europeans, Americans, their ancestors at some point decided to work and save and pass it on.
Now we call it "privilege" and act like it's unearned, because apparently people have forgotten just how much was sacrificed for them. I find it absolutely disgusting. Now to address the "white" part in more detail...
Whiteness in more detail. (Image) 
