So most of us end up living between a rock and a hard place. Do we stay at home to be threatened by authoritarian regimes and not have full independence and freedom? Or do we try to get to the west to be free, but become a poster child for how good the west is (even though it supports the very authoritarian regimes that suppress us, by selling weapons and more)?

The extent of the power of white privilege, even if only by association, came as a surprise to most world leaders, including Donald Trump, who were pressed into taking action following the murder of the Saudi Washington Post journalist “who is not even an American citizen”, as Trump said during a press conference.

While the Saudi regime imprisons thousands of nameless dissidents and kills thousands in Yemen, the whole world knew of one name, Jamal Khashoggi. That is his association with white privilege in action. There are thousands of Khashoggis out there – working, dying – but none will count like he did. But what the focus on him did achieve, thanks to his associated white privilege, is to help bring all of their stories to the surface.