extra credit post on johnson ch 3

In chapter three of Privilege, Power, and Difference, by Allan Johnson, it is explained how capitalism has defined racism. He says that “white racism” did not exist until capitalism began. In capitalism, there is a large sum of money that can only be distributed to a small amount of people; therefore, a large sum of people will be earning small amounts of money. One fact listed by Johnson is that 60% of the people in the United States fight over 25% of the total income, which isn’t enough to make a fair living. Johnson also says that it isn’t very likely that someone will change their social class, and because of this people tend to marry within his or her class. Near the end of the chapter, Johnson says that whiteness was made up by white people to make themselves higher up in the class system in order to make more money. Johnson also gives an example of how all of the different classifications are intertwined. He says that each dominant characteristic is a point, while the recessive characteristic is a negative point, so that a white, heterosexual male with no disabilities would be positive 4 while a colored disabled lesbian would be a negative 4. In the middle of these would be disabled, black, straight men (0) or a white lesbian with no disabilities (0).
I feel that this chapter would be good for the bonus post because it has its good qualities and its bad ones. The part I disagree with is that each category should not be given a single point. There should be differences for the characteristics that are more dominant than the others. I do not have facts on which is looked down on more, being colored, or being female. Once an expert figures this out, the point system would be more realistic. Also, there are differences in the individual characteristics. For example, there are many different races and some may be looked down on more than others. White may not even be at the top since Asians are considered to be smarter, they might get the job before a white person. The job being interviewed for also needs to be taken into consideration. Stereotypically, one would think that a woman would have an advantage for a secretary position over a man because that is stereotypically a female job.

chapter 9 johnson

The last chapter of Johnson’s book Privilege, Power and Difference concludes by providing ways to end the power battle between white, heterosexual, nondisabled, men and people who do not fit one or more of these criteria. He offers the readers a challenge to "To change patterns of exclusion, rejection, privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence that are everywhere in this society and have existed for hundreds (or in the case of gender, thousands) of years.” He offers myths about power struggles and disproves them. He then gives ways to end this power struggle. These things you can do are to speak out at work; promote awareness and training around privilege issues; support equal pay; oppose the devaluing of omen, people of color, people of disabilities, and the work they do; don’t support businesses that are inaccessible to people with disabilities, and tell them why you don’t; become aware of how class divisions operate in social systems; and he goes on to list more that deal with violence and unions. Johnson then goes on to talk about Paul Kivel, who speaks about how to be a good ally to someone who is in a group that has less power than you. Kivel says that people should try to help the less privileged by respecting them, learning about them, not making assumptions, speaking up, and other things along the same lines.
I chose to write about this chapter because I realize that most people probably did not finish the book and in books like this one, the ending is where the main points are brought together and it is the most important part of the book. I wanted the other members of the group to notice the main point of this book so they can take the challenge offered by Johnson and help level the playing field for all people, whether they are white males, or black female lesbians with a wooden leg. This chapter helped me to rethink how I was going to help for equality. At first I thought I would just stop doing things wrongly, but after reading it, I now know that I can not take a passive approach; I have to step out and do the right thing in order to fix the problem of inequality and racism. I will offer a hand to someone in need and help and elderly woman if she needs it and not wonder why she is still living a normal life outside of a nursing home, but the real question is, will you?

chapter 8 johnson

Chapter 8 of Johnson’s book, Privilege, Power, and Difference mainly discusses why a privileged group refuses to change. He says they refuse to change because they deny the fact that there is something to change. Either they feel that they are not taking advantage of power or that there is no difference between groups in a society. This leaves the struggle for power to the powerless groups, which would be difficult to master since they have little power. This power struggle is currently unbreakable because very few people step up offer a solution that can possibly be taken into effect. These people make excuses to why they haven’t done anything to solve the problem of power struggles. In this chapter, Johnson lists several of these common excuses or ways of denying that there exists a difference. People of power often blame the victim. An example of this would be if a white man says that black men don’t get the same job he got is because they didn’t try hard enough. Another way people of power deny the inequalities is by calling the situation something else. He provides the example of the power struggle between men and women a “battle of the sexes.” A third excuse listed in this chapter is that it is better this way. He says that people prefer a power pyramid. The fourth excuse people use is that it doesn’t count if you don’t mean it, referring to diminishing comments. That leaves the final excuse mentioned as “I’m one of the good ones,” which is another way people take themselves off the hook of being abusive of the power given to the group they are included in.
I chose to post on this chapter because I felt that it was important to discuss the common excuses of people in power. This is important to me because I tend to make excuses such as saying, “I have a gay friend,” or, “I would pick a girl for my intramural team, but I couldn’t find one that wanted to play.” I also make excuses such asking my black friend if he wants to eat some fried chicken because I know he likes it. I say it jokingly but he could take offense and I didn’t think about that. It was nice to see that my excuses were wrong and it helps me to rethink the things that I say or do before they happen and eventually I can eliminate the thought of saying or doing those things so I can help end the power struggle. I am now going to call my friends out when they say or do something degrading to someone of a different power group than him or her.

chapter 2 johnson

In chapter two of Privilege, Power, and Difference, Johnson talks about the trouble that Americans are in. He boldly claims that “DIFFERENCE IS NOT THE PROBLEM.” He says that people are troubled, and are always looking to find something to help them prove his or her self worth. They look for reassurance from peers and they long for acceptance, which causes the problem of power struggles. Racism is caused when people hold their own social group higher than another group. So this is why people get privilege. The privileged group doesn’t accept that they have privilege or that it causes problems, so racial privileges cannot be solved. Johnson says that in order to end privilege, both sides need to admit that it exists, whether it is based on race, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability status.
He says that the two best examples that prove people are not different are children and Native Americans. Those two groups notice a difference but they are curious about it rather than think they are better because they do not posses those features. The two groups finally recognized the differences once they were socially constructed to do so. Also in this chapter, Johnson list some things that are a result of privilege of white compared to colored, male compared to females, straight compared to gay, and nondisabled compared to disabled. The list shows that white, male, heterosexual, nondisabled people are more likely to be able to go out in public and assume they won’t be hassled, or can assume that they will be more likely to get a good price on new cars. He lists more examples and most of the examples coincide with every other group of power.
This chapter really surprised me. I used to think groups would have more power than others and was completely in the minds of the people who feel they are at the bad end of the power battle. He completely calls me out on it and says that is how most people are. They deny that it exists and because of that, the problem can never be solved. I was shocked to hear that there are so many differences between the white, heterosexual, nondisabled, males and other groups. I am glad that I chose to write a post about this chapter because I really took interest because it directly said my views were wrong and that they are the same as everyone else’s views. I only need to change my views and the power struggle will be one step closer to ending.
I somewhat defend my views of the lack of privilege in situations such as disabled people being segregated from certain jobs in the way that some jobs can not be completed by someone who has a speech impediment like sales or public speaking because the person may be hard to understand. Or how women get less business jobs but some business jobs may require the employee to move a box of heavy paper and if the man is more capable of doing that job than he deserves it.

ch 2 takaki

In chapter two of A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki, it is shown how groups other than Native Americans faced early racism. This group was the Irish. The were viewed as savages to the English people. In battle, the English would kill “man, woman, and child.” The English would burn crops and villages when they would battle the Irish people. Irish were also not allowed to wear English clothes. Irish people were considered savages because they lacked manners and did not have any prior knowledge of God. This was considered naïve of them too not believe in such a thing as God. Takaki states that the main difference between the Natives and the Irish was their skin color and cultural. After Takaki relates Natives to Irish he goes on to talk about how the Natives were treated. He gives examples of the brutality of the English towards the Natives. He says in one instance Natives were killed by poisonous wine when they were trying to have a peace talk with the English. The thing that removed these actions from the conscience of the English was that they thought of the Natives as a different species. One other difference between the Irish and Natives is that the English believed that the Irish could become socialized while the Natives were a lost cause. There was no use in trying to change the native people to act like the English. Takaki says one of the reasons behind this was the skin color. The skin color prevented the English from seeing Natives as real people.

This is terrible to me. I can see how early people would prejudice people when they look different, but the Irish resembled the English and that would leave them no reasons to dislike the Irish. I am really against prejudice and can not see how these people felt so much; however, they did not think like people think in this time period. The history in the book by Takaki is taken out of context. The people who settled in the Americas had to deal with fear of getting killed by the Natives. They were merely trying to protect themselves. When they weren’t trying to protect themselves they were trying to further develop this barren country and trying to find new ground, which would make them more powerful than neighboring nations such as France and Germany.

Essay post 1/17/7

In the Rosenblum and Travis essay they say that people are discriminated against because of race and culture. This is very bad because why should people be based on a group. Just because some people in a certain race act a certain way, that doesn't mean that all people of that same race act as the group does. It is very uncommon to find someone who is completly unracist and when you find someone like this it is a good thing. Somewhere in the back fo every person's mind there is a feeling to treat a person differently or think differently about that person. When a person can eliminate that subliminal feeling they have achieved a lot.
The same thing goes for gender. The authors say that a masculine female is more acceptable than a feminine male. It makes me wonder why. I think that they are like this is because society's views on males is more strong than its views on females. Females can have many different roles and males are seen to have only one, to make the money for the family. Women on the otherhand can be seen as a homemaker or to bring in money or even other things.
People in stigmatized groups are said to have five charactoristics according to this essay. They are lack of values, likely seen as a problem, lack of self control, too much or too little intelligence, and childlike and savagely. These are simply stereotypes but they show very little understanding of people as an individual instead of people as a whole. People should start to view individuals instead of assuming based on the whole.

post #1 Zinn reading

In Zinn’s article, “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress,” he says that Christopher Columbus is over-glorified. Almost every class that teaches about Columbus presents him as a hero, instead of the murderer that he was. Most classes either omitted or lied about the brutality that he had for the native, Arawak Indians. It was not until Samuel Eliot Morrison, a Harvard historian, wrote his biography on Columbus that the world was showed both sides of the story. Morrison wrote the normal biography about Columbus, which includes defining him as a hero to the New World, but then on one page he describes the torture, murder, and capturing of the native people. This passage is buried inside of many pages describing Columbus as the hero he was, but Morrison doesn’t omit the part of the torture in order to make a realistic biography. I think that the way Columbus treated the natives, as described in “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress” is very bad. I think there could have been a way for both groups to live together. There was no need for Columbus and his crew to kill so many people. I was shocked by how quickly the natives went from a great population to being almost nonexistent.
The article then moves on to describe the other cultures that have conquered natives in order to further themselves and their home country. It mentions Cortes, Pizarro, and the Puritans, who captured and killed the Aztecs, Incas, and Powhatans, respectively. The article then goes on to provide a question intended for the reader to ponder. If sacrifices are necessary to human progress, shouldn’t the people who are sacrificed get to decide whether they are sacrificed or not? It is a tough thought to ponder. Should people who are less advanced have a choice to live in the dark ages or should they be helped to be brought up to speed?

Introduction

My name is Matt Tyrrell. I like to chill. I like to hng out and stuff. There isn't really that much about me that I would post on this because it isn't that cool. I am not a fan of writing things about myself because I don't like to sound conceited but I like how I am because I'm sweet.