I have heard this point made by many of my friends. Another example is: the TSA pat downs are met with outrage precisely because some of the people who are subjected to them are not accustomed to that sort of treatment. Treatment that many members of minority groups have been enduring for decades, at least.<p>The outrage implies that the member of the newly affected group is either unaware of the position of privilege he has enjoyed thus far in his life, or is aware of it and thinks it is the natural order of things. Otherwise, why hasn't the person been outraged for decades about these policies which target less powerful members of society?<p>Taking it further these violations being committed have been paid for (taxes), voted for (elections), and therefore tacitly endorsed, by many of the same people who are so upset when it happens to their in-group.<p>Which is the greater violation? Someone reading your private email, or the imprisonment of a young mother for 40 years because she was associated with drug dealers? Because the latter had been going on long before the former even could exist.