Talking Point #1

Privilege, Power and Difference- Allan G. Johnson 

QUOTES.

"But all these indignities that my whiteness protects me from are part of her everyday existence. And it doesn't matter how she dresses or behaves or that she's an executive in a larger corporation. Her being black and the realtors' and bankers' and clerks' being white in a racist society is all it takes."

This quote in the reading was very deep to me. It's so true everything he says because she will always be in a lose lose situation. She could come in a suit to a store or any location and just because the color of her skin, she will be followed around and asked if she can be "helped" throughout her entire time there. Johnson states in the beginning of the reading that trouble in race is an issue of difference in our society. This african american women who happens to be a coworker of his has so many disadvantages when it comes to being a woman and an african american one at that. Unlike him, race and gender play  a huge role in her life that she can't control.

"An adolescent boy who appears too willing to defer to his mother risks being called a "mama's boy" in the same way that a husband who appears in any way subordinate to his wife is often labeled "henpecked" ... The counterpart for girls carries no such stigma. "Daddy's girl" isn't considered an insult in this culture, and.. contains no specific insulting terms for a wife who is under the control of her husband."

Soooo, I think I smell a double standard. Johnson uses this example to describe another form of privilege called conferred dominance according to McIntosh. Conferred dominance is when one group has power over the other group. In this case, it's the men having more power then the women. WHICH I find ridiculous, so basically I felt like it was saying that women can't be in control of their husbands without men feeling some type of way but it's cool when men are in control and women aren't insulted by it. Anyways  .. Johnson states that in culture it's acceptable when women are under control of their husbands.

"It's relatively easy for people to be unaware of how privilege affects them."

Sometimes people are blinded by something that is right in front of their faces. They don't see something that is so obvious because they don't realize how much it pertains to their lives because that privilege has been attached to them for as long as they been on this very earth. Johnson goes on to say that he can be just as talented, aspired and motivated as the next person, but because he is a white , male, heterosexual, middle-class professional , he is more likely to get praised for awarded for it. It's not like he uses  it to his advantage, but the next person isn't awarded and praised, because their race, gender, social class and other categories don't fit all together like his. 

MCFN's Intuition For Thought: Comment/ Point to Share

"We look to other people to tell us that we measure up, that we matter, that we're okay"

The way this society has become, we turn to others' opinions and society's opinion about what's acceptable and not acceptable, cool and not cool. This quote can be read by anyone and it would make them think. We have to be leaders instead of followers always going to other people. And this goes back to the conferred dominance with women always going to their significant others to see if what they're doing is okay. 


"Stupid white b*tch"