👨 Privilege, Power, and Difference 👳

By Allan G. Johnson

3 Talking Points: 

1. "Class differences have huge effects on people's lives, but class is fundamentally different from gender, race, and sexual orientation". In some ways, yes I do agree with this. However, for people who are born into generations and generations of low class, it can be very difficult, and close to near impossible to break that cycle.
2.  Acknowledging the words that people "don't like" to hear or that provide that "shock factor" when discussing something like race privilege or gender privilege is going to make them more comfortable and open to them. Education can and will go a long way for someone who doesn't see or doesn't believe that certain forms of privilege exists 
3. There are so many different forms of privilege that appear in our everyday lives that we either don't see because we are used to them, we accept them as truths, or we accept them because we feel that there is not much that can be done to fix them. Some examples that stood out to me:
• "Men can succeed without other's being surprised".
• "Whites don't find themselves slotted into occupations identified with their race like black are slotted into support positions or Asians into engineering". 
• "Heterosexuals can live in where they want without having to worry about neighbors who disapprove of their sexual orientation". 

Argument Statement:

This author, Johnson, argues that privilege is all around us, in many different forms, and the first step in eliminating it is acknowledging it exists and make change. By educating ourselves about the world around us we are contributing to the change and shift in the ideas of the people around us.