I don’t think the problem is that Buttigieg is the beneficiary of white privilege — all white people (poor and rich alike, uneducated and educated) have benefited and still do from centuries of systemic racism. But few white people are conscious of the kinds of benefits and opportunities they have had at the expense of others. Fish are unaware of water until they’re removed from it. I don’t think that being the victim of homophobia — as egregious as it is — will be sufficient to shock a white person into understanding the black experience. One doesn’t necessarily have to be a victim of a particular form of oppression to understand how its victims feel about being oppressed. But one does have to be aware of the extent of the damage, and if one wants to fix the problem one has to be aware of the reason for the injustice in the first place.

The problem is that either Buttigieg doesn’t understand how pervasive systemic racism is (learning long after the fact that South Bend public schools are segregated isn’t much of an insight) or (as Michael Harriot claims) he’s lying about it.

The first explanation means, as you say, that Buttigieg isn’t ready to be president (or even mayor for that matter).

The second explanation means that he probably never will be.