Privilege, Oppression, and Difference

In “Privilege, Oppression, and Difference,” Allan G. Johnson’s thesis is that the “trouble that surrounds difference is really about privilege and power.

This reading explains how we are so focused on difference as being the problem of the existence of unfair treatment of certain groups in our world today. The author explains that the problem is not of difference, but of privilege and the power that comes along with that privilege. There is a natural assumption that people are afraid of what they do not know or understand about a group of people while, in reality, we are afraid of only what we think we know about that particular group. In addition, we characterize others by their outer characteristics, most of the time ones they cannot change. Examples of such are their ethnicity, race, age, and gender. The social reality is that we are organized in ways to encourage people to use differences as a way to include and exclude, or reward or punish. These perceptions are so difficult to control because it is what we are taught and therefore form quick impressions of one’s status. For instance, in our culture, if a baby is born with a mixture of gender characteristics, they are surgically altered to fit in with the notion of male or female. In contrast, Native Americans in such a situation would just place the baby in another category, called nadle, or would be able to pick their gender. Also, the author reinforces the fact that the idea of people being black and white is falsified, that there is really no such thing. For instance, in Africa, a man or woman would not think of themselves as black, but African. They do not understand the meaning of being black and everything that comes with it until they are placed in an environment like America where we use these labels. The treatment people receive based on such labels is a great example of how some are more privileged than others.

I agree with the author when he states that “When people heard that they belong to a privileged group or benefit from something like ‘white privilege’ or ‘male privilege,’ they don’t get it, or they feel angry and defensive about what they do get.” It is true that we have a bad habit of being ignorant to the fact that we are more privileged than others due mainly to those characteristics of ourselves that are unearned. We are still blind to the fact that being white is looked at as being pure and that we have privileges that come along with such a title. As Johnson says, “white privilege gives whites little reason to pay attention to African Americans or how white privilege affects them.” The same is true with being male and female and any other social categories—that we are born with differences and automatically accept the stereotypes that come with them.

I think that this article had a lot of good points in it, especially with the idea of people being blind to the realization of how privileged they really are and for what reasons. It makes sense that “The ease of not being aware of privilege is an aspect of privilege itself, what some call ‘the luxury of obliviousness.’” We gain advantage over others for unfair reasons and are often not even thankful for this privilege. People need to be more accepting of the many differences we hold and not place judgment on those who are in fact different than themselves.