All of us are the Problem - Blog One

Author: Alan Johnson

Title: Privilege, Power, Difference

Talking Points:

(1)  In Johnson's writing he immediately begins with the elephant in the room. He mentions "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). Topics mentioning any diversity outside of the majority are often at times shot down; whether it regards to inequality of race, gender, class etc. because it makes some feel uneasy and defensive, even feeling imaginary guilt. 

(2) Later in the reading the author is addressing the fact that many social constructs are the root of the issue. He references James Baldwin on page 21 saying "..most of what we experience as "real" is a cultural creation...it's made up, even though we don't experience it that way". This reminds me of my undergrad when Professor Harkness challenged the class in what is considered a social construct. At first it was easy but as he went on the class took longer to decide, having students debate what we believed was to be true and authentic. Furthermore, the constructs are always changing. Like mentioned, the Irish and Italians were met with discrimination once they came flooding in to the States. Over time they have joined the majority. However, once passing the threshold of oppression they tore apart the next group of people rather than using their new privilege to help one another. This segue into the third talking point.

(3) Toward the end of the reading Johnson informs the audience of the concepts being versus feeling privileged in Chapter 3 on the end of page 36. The external presentation of privilege doesn't equate to the internal feeling. In my work we interview students between 14-18 years old to enter our program. We are government funded and have to ask specific census-like questions including 'what's a students ethnicity and race'. We had a student last year who was white and listed their ethnicity as 'New Englander'. On the other hand we always have a handful of students who will have Puerto Rico or Dominican listed on ethnicity and leave race blank because they do have a light complexion but internally aren't feeling that white privilege. We live in a society that wants to label everything but then rejects when people want to label themselves.

Argument Statement: This author argues that although people didn't choose their privileges due to the structures they were born into, it is crucial to address the powers, differences, and oppressions of their own backgrounds in order to propel society into being able to "treat one another with decency and respect and appreciate if not support the best we have in us".

Connections: An easy comparison of these social constructs and effects can be found in Jane Elliot's Blue Eye and Brown Eye Experiment. The second students find out their eyes give privilege they immediately change their attitude. Prior to their newly labeled lives, in an all white classroom they didn't see that much of their privilege until "society" decided some of them have privilege and others discovered what oppression is.

Reflections:

To reflect on this with my personal experience, I started the Upward Bound program when I was a freshman in high school. I went to a predominately white school and entered a space where I was 1 of 5 white presenting students out of 105. Although I didn't feel too uncomfortable not having majority of people who looked like me in there, I can't imagine what a young black student would feel entering a space with 100 white students with the privilege they are perceived to have. Being in the program really opened my eyes to all different cultures, backgrounds, and had uncomfortable conversations that led my to my love for Sociology in college.