Critical approaches to Whiteness, heteronormativity, masculinity, and educational privileges have contributed in recent years to a greater focus on structural privileges. Various studies have established that structural privileges often remain invisible for the privileged individuals themselves (Bourdieu and Passeron 1997; Frankenberg 1993; Rommelspacher 1995). This article works on the assumption that this is partly due to the meritocratic promise of modernity--the assurance that positions in society are based solely on achievements. That is, in contrast to feudalism, a person's position in a hierarchically structured social order is supposedly no longer determined by birth or religious status, but solely by his or her own merit, competence and talent (Young 1958; Goldthorpe 1996; Solga 2005). At the same time, however, social collectives such as men, Whites, heterosexuals, the educationally privileged etc. are systematically privileged in Western cultures (Frankenberg 1993; Conell 1987; Warner 1993; Walgenbach 2005; Wagenknecht 2007). This is manifested, for example, in unequal forms of labor division, in legal privileges, or unequal educational opportunities. Our thesis is that the contradiction between meritocratic promises and systematic privileges gives rise to tensions that are dealt with differently by privileged subjects. The present qualitative research project investigates how these tensions are dealt with collectively in specific pedagogical conversational situations. The object of analysis is group conversations held immediately after the so-called "privilege test." The group conversations took place in various educational contexts in Germany. This paper discusses some preliminary findings.