His story was his grandmother who did not beat him when he and a couple of his family kids did something naughty and all got beaten, not him. Because he is half white. And in Apartheid South Africa, you would not dare to touch a white kid.
I was on a mission for my office in Latin America presenting at conferences about using patent information to enhance innovation. They invited me to dinners, they believed any word I said, I was interviewed on local television. My presentations were not that well prepared and researched. I just shared my knowledge and views (and they were not controversial). My colleagues were somewhat less impactful. They were Cuban, Spanish and Brazilian. I am blond, blue eyes, engineer and German. I travelled extensively in Latin America and often experienced this automatic privilege due to mostly unearned characteristics.
I have never been seriously stopped by and border guard, anywhere in the world.
There’s my unearned privilege.
How is yours?