I think the idea that no one can be conscious of privilege is a sign of how watered down and overgeneralized the concept has been. I don't live in a current monarchy, but I'm fairly certain the artistocracy are very aware of their privilege relative to commoners. I am also fairly certain that prior to the feminist revolution, men were very aware of their privilege relative to women. In Jim Crow or apartheid, white people were very aware of their privilege relative to Black people. When there are systems of difference written into law, everyone is aware of those systems of difference.

But in egalitarian systems, we're talking about the gap between the way society is theoretically supposed to function and the way it functions in lived experience. This is a much squishier concept. I think "privilege" becomes used as a way to paper over that squishiness. We should be doing the work to listen to each other and ground our understanding of inequality in site-specific and time-specific systems. What inequality comes from intentional actions? What inequality comes from historical legacies? What inequality comes from demographic numerical differences? What inequality comes from biology? "Privilege" often lets activists skip that analysis.