out of fairness, they might have had malicious intent (edit missed that this was IRL, my bad. this comment probably doesn’t apply to your situation apologies. leaving it up with this disclaimer as i think it’s valuable)

language has a lot of power. the ability to accurately describe one’s condition and identity is absolutely required in order for organization, and therefore change, to happen.

that’s why conservatives get so worked up over gender pronouns and words like “cisgender.” they are well aware that a community that is denied language to describe itself is nothing more than a set of individuals.

if you deny the word “privilege” then you deny by extension the word “unprivileged” and then you are left without a word for the millions of people lacking basic education, income, housing etc to describe themselves.

(im vaguely aware this was the plot to that one george orwell novel)