``I have come to see White privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was 'meant' to remain oblivious,'' she says.

      The growing discussion of White privilege at CU has attracted some negative response, and the attacks have spilled into the university's examination of its lack of diversity.

      The European/American Issues Forum — an organization that says it is not White supremacist but stands up for White rights — has e-mailed a couple dozen student leaders and filed three open-records requests with CU interim president Hank Brown asking for university expenses on ethnic clubs. One e-mail included statistics of crimes against Whites by Blacks.

      The center tries to debunk the only two views in the United States concerning Whiteness — either as White supremacist or color blindness, a belief that Whites have no race and therefore don't need to worry about it, Hitchcock said.

      The course is popular at CU, though, and it's mostly White students who take it, said Eleanor Hubbard, a retired CU professor who taught it.

Professors had to turn away students, capping the class at about 60 a semester. But the concept of White privilege is infused in many sociology and ethnic-studies courses.

      To fight racism, Whites need to see they have advantages that are a ``result of them being White, not for any other reason like they are smarter or have a better education,'' Hubbard said.

      ``It's not about feeling guilty,'' she said. ``That doesn't help anyone. What is helpful is to use those privileges to make changes so that equality is possible.''