I met a fresher last week. She had only been in Cambridge six weeks, and her experience was mostly a pleasant one. But she complained to me about the feelings of some of her male friends. Her straight, white, male friends.

She told me how insulted they felt and how confused they were – they were also a little bit annoyed. They were insulted because they felt they were unjustly grouped with other straight white men – straight white men who were prejudiced against women, ethnic and sexual minorities. They’d never been sexist, racist or homophobic in their lives and they felt to neatly place them alongside the prejudiced was stereotyping and massively unfair. Confused as to why this was the case, they weren’t shy to express to my friend just how annoyed they were. They were annoyed at the CUSU Women’s Campaign, feminists and LGBT+ rights activists, among others, and saw them as pedantic more than anything else.

Unfortunately, those straight white men are very wrong. Being a straight white man today still makes you more privileged than most people in our society. You are offered worlds of opportunity that others simply are not. Disputing this would frankly be laughable and have unhealthy long-term consequences. Despite our progressive western social norms, straight white men still hold the primary influence. This is because women, ethnic and sexual minorities are all less likely to be elected into office or hold political power, and more likely to be misrepresented in the media and be disparaged for their sexualities and the sexual lives they lead. While a straight white man is a lad for sleeping around, a woman, is, for example, at worst a slut and at best a shark.

Numbers don’t tend to lie, and when looking at the facts it becomes hard to deny that today's society is still deeply unjust towards women and ethnic and sexual minorities. According to The Telegraph, women in full time employment earn 15.7 per cent less than their male counterparts – they are also only half as likely to earn £50,000 a year. And according to a recent Times Higher Education article, only four per cent of black staff at UK universities are professors – lower than any other ethnic minority. Meanwhile, amongst non-UK academic staff, only seven per cent of BME staff earn salaries of £56,467 or more, compared to 15 per cent of white staff. And according to Stonewall’s Homophobic Hate Crime Survey, one in six gay, lesbian and bisexual people has been victim of a hate crime in the last three years.

Because they are the most privileged members of our society, straight white men don’t see the oppression others face on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, they don’t see that it is members of their demographic who are primarily responsible for this oppression. It becomes hard for them to understand that in this narrative of oppression they are directly implicated through association.

So rather than feel insulted, confused and complain about being associated with misogynists, homophobes and racists, what should the straight white man do? Straight white men should actively campaign for the rights of women and ethnic and sexual minorities. They should work to end patriarchy and not surrender to the status quo. They should make it their mission to create a more equal world with equal opportunities. After all, privilege comes with responsibility. It’s a responsibility to call a mate out when they call someone a slut or a whore, or when they use homophobic or racist language. It's a responsibility to address unconscious biases, and to make sure everyone feels included in the conversation. It is only by making an effort to put themselves in other people's shoes that the straight white men of our society will ever fully appreciate quite how lucky they are.