"white american males working as computer programmers are not privileged" - It may be hard for you to see privilege as in general everyone you grew up with grew up with the same privileges as you, and now that you are a computer programmer your peers are also equally privileged. But I can rest assure you.. that you are privileged..

I am a hispanic male working as a computer programmer, and maybe because of that it's easier to see the privilege my occupation affords me as my grandmother lives in a country where the median income after tax is 500 american.. Where every so often the police, and army decide to shoot it out in the streets.. Where 51% of the population is beneath the poverty line..

Maybe it's easier for me to see privilege as I went to a highschool that was a minority majority school in the poor part of town. Where some kids weren't worried about there health care from the flu, but there health care from a flying bullets within there apartment complex. Where the kids in the cafeteria line that had white slips are getting there only meal of the day because it's paid for by the government.

Not only do I think it's important to understand we are privileged; I believe it is also our responsibility to act on that privilege to make sure all are granted the same basics our life affords as engineers (job security, food, health care, personal security[violence], time off to vote, etc). Only when the general public is granted those basics will I even partially not think of my self as not privileged.