And ultimately I believe the more important dialogue is about power and privilege and how they're located, and not about race.

I think race is a part of those power structures. It doesn't exist genetically, it's a social construct which is handy in aiding accumulation by the ruling class. And because of that system, people are now instinctively icked by African features, for example. So instinctive prejudice against non-Europeans is a problem in itself, resulting from European imperialism.

And like it or not, "whiteness" exists. Like the "West" isn't a real geographic description, whiteness doesn't describe a discrete ethnic group with a common history. It describes a loose set of features given preference in modern Western society. Have you read How The Irish Became White? That's as good an explanation as any.