Privilege, Power, and Difference

Allan G Johnson
Privilege, Power, and Difference

Johnson's argument is said by himself in his introduction. "I focus almost entirely on gender, race social class and, in a less extensive way, sexual orientation." Johnson argues that all of us are part of these problem. That there is no way to avoid them as long as we live in this world. But we could also make ourselves part of the solution if we only knew how. He says, "My primary goal is to change how people think about issues of difference and privilege."

(1)"The simple truth is that when I go shopping, I'll probably get waited on faster and better than she will. I'll benefit from the cultural assumption that I'm a serious customer who doesn't need to be followed around to keep me from stealing something. The clerk won't ask me for three kinds of ID before accepting my check or accepting my credit card. But all these indignities that my whiteness protects me from are part of her everyday experience. And it doesn't matter how she dresses or behaves or that she's an executive in a large corporation. Her being black and the realtor's and bankers' and clerks' being white in a racist society is all it takes."

-I agree with this quote. An example that I have is when I was shopping for a prom dress with my friend who is Hispanic and I was treated much differently then I was when I returned with my mom. " Not only about race does this happen, but age is huge too. You see this in Providence Place mall where security is after all teenagers but especially teenagers of color.

(2)"You can't deal with a problem if you don't name it; once you name it, your can think, talk, and write about it. You can make sense of it by seeing hows it's connected to other things that explain it and point toward solutions. Usually the language needed for this comes from people working to solve problems, especially people most damaged by it. Words like privilege, racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, heterosexism, classism, dominance, subordination, oppression, and patriarchy are part of their everyday vocabulary. When you name something, the word draws your attention to it, which makes you more likely to notice it as something significant."

- I agree with this quote especially the sentence that says, "ususally the language needed for this comes from people working to solve problems, especially people most damaged by it." On a personal level, I see this with my mother. She is handicapped and when I am with her I notice people's comments and judgements because she has shared her experiences with me. In an airport security people will address me about moving forward in the long lines or what needs she may have.

(3) "Issues of difference cover a large territory. A useful way to put it in perspective is with the "diversity wheel" developed by Marilyn Loden and Jody Rosener. In the hub of the wheel are six social characteristics: age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical ability and qualities, and sexual orientation. Around the outer ring are several others, including religion, martial status, whether we're parents and social class indicators such as education, occupation, and income."
"...it might occur to you (as it did to me) that the wheel doesn't say much about the unique individuals you know yourself to be, your personal history, the context of your character, what you dream and feel. It does, however, say a lot about the social reality that shapes everyone's life in powerful ways."
"For most people shifting only a few parts of the diversity wheel would be enough to change their lives dramatically. Even thought the characteristics in the wheel may not tell us who we as individuals are in the privacy of our hearts and souls, they matter a great deal in our society because they locate us in relation to other people and the world in ways that have huge consequences."

- Again I agree with this comment especially the part about the inner ring. People's personal life experiences shape their personality and their gifts. Much more than the qualities in the outer ring unfortunately.

I felt this was an easy read, which is good becuase I dont like to read anything to hard. Sometimes if it's to hard I'll read the words and context over and over but can't analyze it so I get stuck. But Johnson made it easy to connect our experiences to his. He was also repeating things over and over.

I was watching Oprah one day and the Headline of the show was What would you do? and it was about how people treat others becuase of color, and religion and so on. All the clips relate to this class but I could only found one clip.