Think Paper

1
Think Paper 6 \

• Privilege, Power and Difference
• By Allan G. Johnson
• Chapter 5/6

2
Discuss what Johnson means by, A Problem for
Whom?

• Family relationships
• Living up to real men image
• Fear of violence
• True cross-gender friendship
• p.64

3
What is the Race trouble for whites?

• Enormous suffering caused by racism
• Discomfort fear around blacks
• Demonizing black men boys
• Not being trusted
• Moral integrity, hypocrisy re values of
  fairness, etc.

4
Who is really affected by the isms (racism,
sexism, ageism,

• Everybody! They affect more than women,
  homosexuals, racial ethnic minorities.
• Because its impossible tolive in a world that
  generates so much trouble, injustice suffering
  without being touched by it. (p67)

5
How does the trouble around difference affect
organizations, communities and society as a
whole?

• Denial
• Oblivious
• Crisis scandal
• Culture of denial and neglect that permeates
  society as a whole.

6
Why dont dominant groups see privilege as a
problem? (p74)

• B/C they dont know it exists in the first place.
• Because they dont have to
• Because the think its just a personal problem
• B/C they want to hang on to their privilege
• Because theyre prejudiced-racist, heterosexist,
  classist
• Because they are afraid

7
What two strategies are most often used to try
engaging CEOs and others in positions of
privilege?

• Appeal to sense of fairness and decency or their
  good will toward those less fortunate
• The business case soscially responsible,
  organizations work better, raises morale,
  productivity and lowers costly turnovers,
  protects agains lawsuits, etc.
• We need a third choice (p82)

8
What is the myth that everything is somebodys
fault?

• Individualism individualistic thinking
• Society encourages us to think that the social
  world begins and ends with individuals.
• This is a narrow and distorted view of reality.
• The social world consists of a lot more than
  individuals, we are always participating in
  something larger than ourselves - social systems,
  more than a collection of people.

9
Define the path of least resistance?

• Systems load the odds in certain directions for
  us to follow that are far more appealing
• Its the only one we see
• Its more comfortable
• Its less scary
• We do what we are told to do
• We smile, laugh or remain silent

10
What is the social system that drives
privilege, power and difference?

• We are connected to each other through a dynamid
  relationship.
• Patterns of oppression privilege are rooted in
  systems that we all participate in and make
  happen.
• These patterns are built into paths of least
  resistance that we are drawn to follow every day.

11
Privilege, Power Difference

• As long as we participate in social systems, we
  dont get to choose whether to be involved in the
  consequences they produce. Were involved simply
  through the fact that were here. As such, we
  can only choose HOW to be involved, whether to be
  just part of the problem or also to be part of
  the solution. Thats where our power lies, and
  also our responsibility.

12
How do systems of privilege work?

• 10. What does it mean to be involved in
  Privilege and Oppression? Pg 96)
• Through social systems and how individuals
  participate in them.
• Systems organized around privilege have three key
  characteristics They are dominated by PG,
  identified with PG and centered on PG
• members of PG are superior, thus deserving

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Dominance

• Positions of power tend to be occupied by members
  of that group in ways that make it seem natural
  and normal.
• Consider the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher
• Male dominance describes a patriarchal system
  that both men and women participate ingendered
  patterns of unequal power and paths of least
  resistance for men women that support those
  patterns. p99

14
Dominance (cont.)

• Patterns of dominance and the paths of least
  resistance that sustain them show up in every
  system of privilege.
• White dominance is reflected in an unequal racial
  balance of power in society and its institutions.

15
Identified with Privilege

• Consider, Its a mans world, Its a White
  world, or a Straight world.
• Privileged groups are usually taken as the
  standard of comparison that represents the best
  that society has to offer.
• Because privileged groups are assumed to
  represent society as a whole, American is
  culturally defined as white, despite diversity.

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Identified with Privilege (cont.)

• White identification means rarely if ever being
  identified as white, which is assumed.
• However, racial tags are common for everyone
  else, i.e. black physician, Asian actor, etc.
• There are NO words that culturally associate
  women with a valued quality of human relation in
  the way that fellow and fellowship do for men.

17
Privilege at the Center

• Systems of privilege center on dominant groups,
  thus Black, Latino and female students are
  usually invisible.
• The well traveled path of least resistance makes
  invisibility a key part of the devaluing that
  lies at the heart of privilege oppression.
• Marginalized groups cope by creating their own
  social systems.

18
The ISMS

• Racism is the patterns of privilege and
  oppression themselves and anything- intentional
  or not- that helps to create or perpetuate those
  patterns. If we extend this to other forms of
  privilege, then sexism and heterosexism are also
  more than personal expressions of hostility or
  prejudice, but include everything that people do
  or dont do that promotes male privilege and
  hetero priv.

19
The ISMS (cont.)

• Its not what people do or say but what they
  dont. The Power of silence to promote privilege
  and oppression.
• Silence not looking, or asking are in effect
  just as racist or sexists or heterosexist because
  oppression depends on them in order to continue.
• What counts isnt just what they do, but even
  more what they dont do.

20
The ISMS and US

• doesnt mean that white people are consciously
  racist or that men are intentionally sexist, or
  that heterosexuals are overtly heterosexist. It
  does mean that there isnt a single white person
  or man or heterosexual who doesnt have these
  issue to deal with inside and in relation to the
  world around them. This is their legacy, handed
  to them when they were childrenpg116