Allan G. Johnson, a sociologist
that wrote about being a white, heterosexual, male in a world that see’s white,
heterosexual, males as a privileged and categories such as: non-white, female,
LGBT and other categories as oppressed. This blog is going to be a bit out or
our class norm, because I am writing this after reading Delpit, and Armstrong,
and Wildman’s articles. Johnson’s work was the first that I read for this class
but I was not able to write about it until now. Meaning, now that I have read
Johnson several times, I see where our latest’s authors can relate. For
example, Armstrong and Wildman used a power line chart to show how the line of
privilege divides people into two groups, power and oppression.
Johnson’s paper argues “if we
dispense with the words we make it impossible to talk about what’s really going
on and what it has to do with us. And if we can’t do that, then we can’t see
what the problems are or how we might make ourselves part of the solution to
them” (2). The readings we have
done in class have one common theme, opening up a dialogue, by naming the
problem and talking about it.
Johnson’s paper is a plea to people of power to step out of their
comfort zone, to stop fearing the unknown and, to address the elephant in the
room. As Armstrong and Wildman
wrote, “society cannot battle a phantom that it cannot recognize and name”
(67).
Delpit and Johnson both discuss how
it is those of power, those above the power line, that need to do the most
work. If those without the power were able to defeat the inequalities, we
wouldn’t have a problem to begin with. The people that hold that power are the
people that set the standards and judgments of what is right and what is wrong,
who is in, and who is out, who is above, and who is below the power line. When
the people above the power line begin to question, name, discuss these issues,
is when we can start to make a difference.
As a white, middle class, female, I
could understand a lot of what Johnson meant in his article. I feel
passionately about racism and equality but some times I do feel guilty about
who I am. I think that Johnson’s paper (although not my favorite), was a good
way to open up the semester, by helping us define some of the issues we are
discussing. My favorite quote (it helped when Dr. Bogad broke it down it class)
from Johnson was “It’s like living in a rainy climate and somehow avoiding
being rained on yourself. It’s still a rainy place to be and getting wet is
something most people have to deal with” (38).
Great points Bethany! It is extremely hard to use empathy and to place yourself into someone's place of a different color or position of power. You always tend to want to believe whatever the people of power are feeding you on mass media. You have to sometimes read between the lines and look at other points of view. Nobody likes to get rained on no matter what their race or gender. It's unpleasant, but we all have to be more aware and speak up so that everyone can sleep well at night with their own conscience.
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