Week 1 Charles Hien Blog Post Reflection on Allen Johnson article: Privilege Power and Difference

    I am taking a class on schooling for social justice. Our first reading was a very interesting short (3 chapters) reading by Allen Johnson on privilege, power and difference. These are terms that the author uses to describe a society that has developed in the United States and how "social injustices" were derived. I found many of his points very powerful and right on point. He starts out with an introduction that points out the trouble our society. He states "that we are both individually and a society as a whole stuck in a paralysis that perpetuates the trouble of its human consequences". I find this quote particularly poignant because it puts the burden of what we have become as a society on society as a whole. I never really thought of social injustice in that manner.

     I grew up in Lincoln RI, where my parents went to Lincoln high school, I went to Lincoln High School and my daughter went to Lincoln High School. I never even realized that I was privileged, a term Johnson calls "epistemic privilege". I am a white heterosexual male with a good education that went to college. That checks all the boxes of being privileged. This has definitely helped me with opportunities throughout my life. I can thankfully say that I have never been fired from a job. I have also been hired by every job that I have ever applied for. Is that because I was the best candidate, or because I am privileged? Looking back at my life it is probably because I grew up privileged. I have always tried to treat anyone and everyone I come into contact with with respect no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, skin color or sexual preference. But I can see from reading this piece that just is not good enough. I would like to make a difference in this battle that our society is in with social justice, but I just don't know how to go about it. I am hoping this class enlightens me and broadens my mindset so that I can make a difference and help pass a better social mindset to generations of the future.

    Johnson goes on to talk about the three terms and their relevance to society. He starts with difference. In my opinion we are all different, to me that is what makes our society so interesting. But because of where I grew up, I never quite realized how being different could effect a person's societal status until I got older and grew with my life experiences. Johnson feels like difference has the least effect on societal injustice. Whereas privilege and power has created most of the injustices we have in society today. These two terms prey on the differences in people. Like in my case, privilege has allowed me to get every job I wanted in my work history. Johnson goes on to say how in our society today, people of privilege are predominantly the people who are in a position of power. 

    I have attached a link to Youtube. I typed in "why are their not more women in positions of power". When I typed this quote into Youtube a series of videos popped up. Some of them were absolutely ludicrous and demeaning to women. Others were actually interesting and talked about changing our societal mindset on gender discrimination. This is part of the problem with our society. 

Question for class discussion

Do you feel that the media (social and otherwise) has an effect on what norms in today's society are and should be? 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=why+arent+there+more+women+in+positions+of+power