Analysis Of Privilege, Power, And Difference By Allan Johnson

Improved Essays
The text, Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan Johnson, is a 156-page detailed account of Johnson’s views on American society and how social class, race, sexual orientation, gender, disability status, and privilege causes a “difference” in the way we view each other. Johnson’s personal views on how these factors affect the way members of the minority live and survive in current day United States is aimed at raising social awareness. The text, written by Johnson, identifies the social principles that form the belief of privilege and entitlement, often making jest at the very serious issue of inequality.
This was a quick and easy read, yet was packed with valuable information and valid arguments. Johnson delves into American history,
…show more content…
The “Diversity Wheel”, created by Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener, uses basic factors such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities, and sexual orientation as the core of the wheel (15). Societal factors such as geographic location, religious belief, marital status, income, education, and work background serves as the outer shell of the wheel (15). The center of the wheel represents individual core characteristics (race, age, etc.) all of which cannot be altered, however, naturally our personal experiences differ and with the outcome of our lives dependent on various social factors. Education, income, and religious and sexual affiliation to name a few does little to change who we are within, but how society views us. The author highlights the “diversity wheel” to allow readers to visualize the categories that they may fall into. Depending on your core characteristics and your background, the wheel can place you in a positive or negative societal light. By the same token, it is important to realize that one can be privileged, and underprivileged at the same time. Individuals can belong to a dominant group, yet be poorly educated, live in poor economic standing, and be of an alternative sexual orientation, leaving them only “slightly” …show more content…
The text has the potential to change the views of some a fact that I hope each individual that reads does. As fore mentioned, I can certainly identify with the text and its premise, due to the multiple disadvantages that society says I have. However, reading the text, I find myself privileged in some respects being a believer in the Christian faith, married, educated, steadily employed, and a product of a two parent household. But, does this negate the opinions of others just seeing my outer shell? My thought is not! The text urges readers to look deeper into an individual and confront the unknown. This book has great significance and relevance, especially in the trying times that we are now experiencing with race relations in our country. This book is a must

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Ph.D. Peggy McIntosh wrote an article in 1988 titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. In the article, McIntosh explains a certain set of privileges that come with being white and living in the United States of America. The idea for the article came to her as she was writing another article about male privilege in America. To McIntosh, racism is something which puts another at a disadvantage. She realized that this omission had to mean that if one was inherently advantaged, another would be placed at a disadvantage.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In White Like Me, Tim Wise explains from a personal experience of the ways in which racial privilege shapes the lives of most African Americans and white American, openly racist or not. The book shows the broadness and deepness of the abnormality within institutions such as, education, employment, housing, healthcare, and criminal justice. By determining the importance of racial privilege and its cost, Wise provides an amazing that will inspire anyone in understanding the way that race shapes the experiences of people in the United…

    • 86 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In her article, Peggy McIntosh, puts light on the unacknowledged phenomena known as “white privilege”. She carries out an analogy between male privilege and white privilege. Males in the society unconsciously deny the fact that they are overprivileged at the expense of women. Even if they might accept the fact that women are disadvantaged, they would never support the idea of lessening their own status in the society. Similarly, white people enjoy their unearned privilege as they are in a state of forgetfulness regarding its existence.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    White individuals, she asserts, might believe people of color live under a disadvantage in our society, but do not see themselves as privileged because of their whiteness. The author lists twenty-six ways she sees white people as having privileges that people of color do not enjoy. These differences range from white individuals able to shop without being followed or harassed, to people of color struggling to be accepted as “qualified” in their job if the position is an affirmative action one. She allows the word “privilege” is misleading, since when confronted with the term, most white people think of “privilege” as something like a favored state conferred by birth or luck. Ms .McIntosh…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In relation to privilege Cornell west had a lot to say about the state of the United States. The issue that he exemplifies is how powerful and privileged the rich are in comparison to everybody else. Cornell West states how when he was young the 1% held 20% of the wealth, but now that number has dramatically to an astounding 40%. He places rich white people in general as the privileged class at fault of keeping the little guy down. We have talked about privilege in class, and how some individuals have advantage over others, in this case because of wealth.…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In history, there has always been inequality; otherwise there wouldn’t be any pushes to make a change. A great portion of inequality has been evident among those identified as minorities. Specifically, the United States being such a melting pot has not always been the case, for many people have accounted for the challenges they faced while living in a society where race and culture defined where they stood on the social chain. A woman who became the first Navajo surgeon, Lori Arviso Alvord, wrote a piece on her experience of being in a college that was meant to promote Indians being on campus, and her story had power among the way she saw her situation. In her piece, she recounted that she “walked around the campus in awe, like a peasant visiting the castle of a great king” (Alvord, Lori Arviso, 303).…

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We live in a time where unfortunately, racism is still an issue that many people across many races deal with. In America, it is mainly African-Americans, Hispanics, and Middle Eastern people that deal with the pain and hatred that takes shape in many different forms. In “Understanding White Privilege” by Frances Kendall, Ph.D., the author explores the concept of white privilege with an informative, yet critical tone in order to persuade readers to think differently. Kendall starts off by explaining the purpose of her article, which is to “to become clear about the basics of white privilege what it is and how it works” (2).…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have always viewed racism as people of other color being discriminated against. Most people view privilege as being a favored state, meaning that by birth or luck a person is at an advantage to another. McIntosh states that privilege can also be viewed as a state of dominance because of one’s race or sex. I disagree that privilege should be viewed as dominance because individuals who are privileged do not necessarily set out to intentionally control others. McIntosh discusses what can be done to bring an end to white and male privilege.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Tim Wise’s video, The Pathology of White Privilege, Wise mentions how a majority of the white-American population believe the United States, as a whole, has gradually gravitated toward a post-racist society; ignoring the oppression of which African Americans, Latinos, and other racial-minorities face everyday. Through this, Wise suggests the white-American population to be in denial of the privileges of which they are rewarded compared to those of an minority; similarly relating to the denial of which McIntosh discusses in her article White Privilege and Male Privilege : A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies (1988), by which a male’s unconscious privilege does not recognize or acknowledge its oppressiveness toward women. White-Americans toward those of color, as those of the male population toward the women population, are “justly seen as oppressive,” even when we do not envision ourselves in this light, as McIntosh describes in her assertion (McIntosh, 1988.) Skin privilege and gender privilege has conditioned its way into existence, by which fogging the perception…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    White Privilege Overcoming Racism, an organization devoted to “breaking the cycle of oppression” defines privilege as the unquestioned, unearned, and most often unconscious advantage of one group. It consist of society, entitlements, benefits, choices, assumptions, and expectations bestowed upon people based solely on membership in a particular social group. In Short, unearned advantages. White Privilege is simply privilege for white people, and no. White Privilege is not white people being able to get in front of you in the Mcdonald's line or being able to step out in traffic while people of color have to stop and watch.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    What is privilege and how does it manifest itself? Privilege can be defined as a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people. Privilege has been manifesting itself throughout history. The most common type of privilege is given to us because of our gender, race, social class, age, sexual orientation, and disability. It can be hard for some people to come to terms that they were born with certain privilege that some people will never receive in their lifetime, while others may choose to ignore the realities of privilege.…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    White Privilege Essay

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In her comparison, she argues that men would not admit that they are more privileged than women, even when they would conclude that women are more disadvantaged than them. Although everyone has certain individual skills and talents, I believe white privilege exists. In this essay, I’m going to examine several ideas that I believe argue in favor of my belief that White Privilege exist. The ideas that I’m going to indicate is the early beginnings of African American, redlining and zoning laws, the need for affirmative action, mass incarceration, and police…

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Argument to Check My Privilege by Fortgangs Having Privilege has always been a controversial issue that hasn’t been discussed enough throughout history; Privilege gives advantages or immunity grants to particular people or groups of people. An article published by Tal Fortgangs titled “Check My Privilege: Character as Basis of Privilege” tackles on the subject matter of checking his own privilege in a strong, blinded, single-sided, opinionated style of writing to express his feelings and family struggles to obtain their privilege and what one and their ancestors have to go through to obtain this Privilege we all desire and want. In this article Fortgang beings by talking about “Checking his Privilege,” which rephrases to explore how you…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Temporary Inequality

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Throughout history and most of our lives, people often exposed to inequality. Despite the hardships inequality cast onto people, inequality does not always last. Two types of inequality exists; temporary and permanent inequality. Both are forms of inequality but in the case of temporary inequality, inequality is ended when everyone is at equal levels. Despite this ideal of inequality, permanent inequality is the most common and suppresses different races, socials groups, and etc.…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The concept of “Systems of Privilege” refers to the idea that we live in a world where certain people receive more benefits than others due to socially constructed ideologies. Shaw and Lee define privilege as “advantages that people have by virtue of their status or position in society” (p. 54). According to Shaw and Lee, systems of privilege are accompanied by what one of my psychology professors referred to as “-isms.” In psychology, these are referred to as implicit stereotypes; Shaw and Lee challenge student readers to take an IAT, an implicit association test designed to measure our unconscious “-isms.” Systems of privilege would not exist without our unconscious, implicit stereotypes tied to our psychological functioning.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays