Assignment # 1: Allan G, Johnson

Privilege, Power, and Difference

Allan G. Johnson
(Quotes)

I couldn't help but to highlight the interesting things that stuck out to me in Johnson's reading. Here are some of the quotes and why they caught my attention:

"It's relatively easy, for example, for white people to fall into the safe and comfortable rut of thinking that racism is a problem that belongs to people of color, or for men to see sexism as a women's issue, or for members of the middle and upper classes to see poverty as people's own fault. But such thinking mistakes fantasy for reality. It pretends we can talk about "up" without "down" or that a "you" or a "them" can mean something without a "me" or an "us".

 >>> This quote caught my attention because I never saw these societal issues in this way. It was as if subconsciously I associated sexism as an issue of women, and racism as an issue of people of color. However, by reading this quote it was as if it made it conscious. I personally have associated such topics with one another without having an open mind that it can affect others too. Johnson also mentions that a problem of difference cannot just involve one group. This is so true! 

"But these groups can't do it on their own, because they don't have the power to change entrenched systems of privilege by themselves. If they could do that, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place."

 >>> I completely agree with quote too. If as a society, we think they these underprivileged classes should be able to get themselves the help and equality they want, wouldn't that mean we have to allow them the same opportunities? It sounds contradicting because society blames these lower classes and looks down upon them, instead of helping and offering them the same opportunities that the middle and upper classes have. If these resources were available to them they would have a better chance at becoming part of a higher class. Without options, help, or resources, how will these underprivileged classes ever get the chance to be equal?

"This supposedly makes it inevitable that you'll fear and distrust people who aren't like you and in spite of your good intentions, you'll find it impossible to get along with them"...

"If we feel afraid, it isn't what we don't know that frightens us, it's what we think we do know"

>>> These two quotes go hand in hand because Johnson is describing how if we fear the differeneces, we won't ever want to be open minded and allow them to be acceptable. When a person fears something, it is an immediate reaction to avoid, or want to get rid of the situation. However, when it comes to human well being, with us being social animals and in need of love and care, shouldn't we allow ourselves the opportunity to love all? To allow everyone equal rights and opportunites? Instead of being stubborn and fearing only what we THINK we know, why not allow ourselves to see what REALLY exsists.

"A "black woman" in Africa, therefore, who has not experienced white racism, does not think of herself as black or experience herself as black, nor do the people around her. African, yes; a woman, yes. But not as a black woman"

>>> This quote shocked me. I think it is sad that someone can identify themself as a person in one country, then has a racial tag or lable in another country. This woman isn't any less of a human or a person just because she has to put up with white racism in another country.

**These are just some other ideas that stuck out to me in the readings that I want to share:

"Men's violence and harrassment aimed at women is epidemic in the United States, for example, and show no sign of letting up anytime soon"

>>> This quote kind of ticks me off a little bit... I know this is a womens studies course so I'm expecting our primary focus to be on women, but quotes like these seem to generalize. This quote is only talking about men being violent towards women...What about other women who are violent towards women? Or even women who are violent towards men? Then the part where it says it doesn't seem like it will be letting up any time soon seems to put a negative bias towards men because we are assuming all violence is committed by men and that they'll never change. How can we want women and other classes, sexes, orientations, etc... to be equal when we generalize things like that? It seems contradicting and I just wanted to point that out! :-)

"Class differences have huge effects on people's lives, but class is fundamentally different fron gender, race, and sexual orientation. The most important difference is that while we all have the potential to change our class position, the other forms of differences are almost impossible to change."

>>> Do we all really have the potential to change our class position??? If that were true, wouldn't we all be of the upper class? Wouldn't we all have high incomes, big houses, and fancy cars and graduate degrees? That particular part of that quote jumped out at me. Johnson talks about the prviliege or lack there of, but then says something about how we all have potential. I think if we all truly believed that, we would all be equal. I do understand that he goes on to talk about how you cannot change race or sexual orientation because those are not choices. I just don't agree that everyone is allowed the same potential to change class.

-Kayla :-)