I think I get what you mean, but bear in mind that the examples in the article are all people who come from privileged backgrounds. It is definitely not about personal powerlessness, at least. It's something else.
It is, I believe,poor reasoning to equate privilege with power in the way you seem to. From a different perspective: a privileged white male [me] who is very sensitive to history and narrative, who knows that there is so much institutionalized bigotry in my sub group, who must actively work to be the man I wish to see around me, can feel completely powerless in the face of fate to live outside the external expectation of what my skin and penis are supposed to mean regardless of the prodigious opportunities I have enjoyed due to the biological lottery.
