Allan G. Johnson – Privilege, Power, and Difference
In this selection, Johnson
discusses social issues present in today’s society such as class, gender, race,
and sexual orientation. From early on he
presents the fact that readers may be uncomfortable with some of the
terminology and phrases that he uses throughout this piece. He writes to define “privilege, oppression,
racism, sexism, classism”, because he suggests that “you can’t deal with a
problem if you don’t name it; once you name it, you can think, talk, and write
about it (pg. 11).”
Johnson began Chapter 1 by
referring to Rodney King and his question of “can’t we all just get along? (pg.
1)” From there he continues to discuss why “whether it’s a matter of can’t or
won’t, the truth is that we simply don’t get along (pg. 2).” He goes on to highlight specific examples
surrounding the topics of differences between races, classes, genders, and
sexual orientation and the privileges that being one vs. the other gives to
people in our society.
Johnson highlights this fact even
further in Chapter 3 by providing three bulleted lists that depict how
privilege shows up in common social situations.
He urges the reader to “take your time and try to identify situations in
which each might occur (pg. 27).” While
reading the first list (comparing whites and other races) I felt slightly
uncomfortable with some of the situations he was describing. Many of the points he brought up were things
that I had not previously given much (or any) consideration to. When I read his second list (comparing males
and females) my feeling of discomfort quickly turned to anger. I felt myself mentally attempting refute his
points, but ultimately discovering that mostly I agreed with him. Due to being a white female these two lists
put the concept of “privilege” into perspective for me. Johnson continued with a third list regarding
sexual orientation to continue to point out similarities among all three
different lists surrounding the concept of privilege in our society.
For my link
this week I wanted to share a clip from The Office. In this clip the office manager, Michael,
takes a very misguided approach to increasing tolerance in the workplace. The clip is from Season 1, Episode 2 and
called “Diversity Day.” This clip
touches on a few of the social issues that Johnson brings up in the first three
chapters of his book.
"Oh man, am I a woman?"
ReplyDeleteChristina, I think that The Office is going to be a great place for you to find comical videos in support of your readings throughout the semester (at least I hope that's the case). My wife really got me into it and we own a few seasons as a result.
I also spent time mentally refuting points, but found that while doing so, I kept falling into a "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" scenario. The quote that gave me the most solace, after the reading the privilege lists, was the Harry Brod quote on page 36. The idea that I cannot exist outside of the privilege system and that I do not have a choice in whether I accept privilege or not.
So I often wonder about how our own status inflects how we make sense of this notion of privilege. One camp suggests that the more privilege you have, the more you know about privilege. While the other camp would suggest that the less privilege you have, the more you understand about those things you don't have. You say being female helped you "get" some of this. Let's talk more about that on Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and you bring up many interesting points. I also read the Rodney King reference similar to how you did. It seems as if we in this society are not ready to get along. There are many things that have to be said first. I like how Johnson pushes for such things to be said and not ignored. Great clip by the way!!
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