Privledge, Power, and Difference by Alan Johnson

From the eye-catching hook to his own insightful memories, Alan Johnson articulates the concepts of racial and ethnic discrimination in the form of easy consumption and genuine concern. As readers, we view the relevant issues through a lens that encapsulates the numerous consequences and imbalances in everyday life that we might naturally ignore. I selected three specific quotes that I felt encompass Johnson's message in its truest form:

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"The existence of privilege doesn't mean I didn't do a good job, of course, or that I don't deserve credit for it. What it does mean is that I'm also getting something that other people are denied" (Pg24)

Thoughts: When the idea of privilege is brought into discussion regarding an individual's success, it is natural for the person to defend their qualification for such success. It is disheartening for someone to have their accolades in life seen through a negative lens because they're white, straight, etc. In digression, the second sentence is the meat and potatoes of privilege as a societal issue; The thought that two people can produce identical work, of the same high quality, and receive skewed recognition is gross and unjust down to the roots of human nature. This simple but effective juxtaposition was a great way for Johnson to explain this problem to even the most uneducated.

"Racist isn't another word for 'bad white people,' just as patriarchy isn't a bit of nasty code for 'men.' Oppression and dominance name social realities that we can participate in without being oppressive or dominating people. And feminism isn't an ideology organized around being lesbian and hating men. But you'd never know by listening to how these words are used..." (Pg13)

Thoughts: Through the years and years of unrelenting efforts to lessen the effects of discrimination as a whole, the terms that find themselves caught up in the fight have seen slight deviations in their meanings. Although not maliciously and in most cases not purposely, certain meanings begin to warp, like a game of telephone. Unfortunately, media has its endless ways of changing things at their own will, and that goes for words that mean so much in a movement like those needed to reform the discrimination issues of the world. When the average person gets their news from the average station, people can be educated with uneducated information, which defeats the whole purpose.

"Ignoring privilege keeps us in a state of unreality, by promoting the illusion that difference itself is the problem...The real illusion connected to difference is the popular assumption that people are naturally afraid of what they don't know or understand." (Pg16)

Thoughts: Often by people with unrecognized privilege will believe that the problem is solidified and the fact that they're white, or straight, or male, or maybe all of them, that they just got lucky and that's just the way the world is. However, by doing this, they remain naive to the actual implications and causes of privilege which is seated in the unwillingness of change by many who reap the benefits of the systemical imbalances