I have to start off and say for my first reading since
starting up school again, this had me thinking a lot. Diving into Privilege,
Power and Difference by Allan G. Johnson covered a lot informative ground. Here
are a couple of points that I took from the reading. In my opinion, the author
is arguing that privilege is what makes us believe difference is the problem. When
i think about it, difference isn’t the problem the fear and assumptions are.
For example, someone with a disability is less capable and needs help all the
time. In my current job as a retail manager, I see people with disabilities excel in roles that some would
assume they could not do. Another assumption you could say is woman in
leadership roles. Three quarters of my markets managers are women. The
assumption of women shouldn’t be in roles over men is very off.
Another interesting point Johnson illustrated was the
diversity wheel. The diversity wheel was very easy to navigate with the middle
having the social characteristics such as age, race, gender, sexual orientation
and physical abilities. The outside of it lays out identity factors such as religion,
marital status, parenthood, occupation and income.
Everyone has their own unique positions on the diversity wheel.
The real point is there is no “normal” and Johnson wants readers to really see
how they fall on it and better understand others. Below is a different wheel I found
that opened up more sub categories.
Something we could discuss more in class is if privilege is
built into social systems rather that individual intentions, how responsible
are individuals for challenging it?
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-its-important-to-think-about-privilege-and-why/
Hi Corey! I loved how you were able to find the "Academic Wheel of Privilege" that has a lot more sub-categories than the "Diversity Wheel" from the reading. We can really use this wheel when we think about our own future classrooms and how we plan to take on the many differences across all students! Great work!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lizzie!
DeleteHello Corey! I like how you drew parallels from the text to your real-life experiences (like how "disabled" workers can be capable of far more than typically expected, and how leadership shouldn't be based on gender.
ReplyDeleteThe second one speaks to me directly, as I've worked in excellent organizations with great male and female leaders, while the two worst supervisors of my career were a man and a woman. I've always hoped (maybe believed) that forms of prejudice like racism and sexism would fade over time (like smoking has) but maybe it isn't, or maybe it's just moving slower than we need.
Hi Corey! I like how you draw parallels from Johnson's text to real-life experiences, like retail. This struck a chord of truth in me because there's this ongoing argument that just because someone is "high functioning," that ostensibly "doesn't mean" that they can either miss a day of work due to an underlying illness. For example, I have type 2 diabetes and I'm immunocompromised at an elementary school (you can just imagine how many absences I have!), and I was confronted by my school's principal, and it was then that she found out I was, indeed, immunocompromised. As a result, I have to send in a doctor's note for "proof."
ReplyDeleteOn top of diabetes, I have an array of mental health challenges, which also make it hard to get up and go to work. People tend not to see these things because they are so hidden beneath the surface of the skin. They just assume because one is "high functioning," that they can do the job with no problem.
In addition, I really like how you incorporate the Academic Wheel of Privilege because this expanded version helps us see how privilege is not a simple "yes" or "no" but a collection of subcategories. To answer your question at the very end, you could pose the question to the class on Thursday is "how do these wheel(s) help us see the 'normal' that the system was built for?"
I can answer right now: you're in a moving airport walkway, right? This is just an example, but one is simply standing still because that is just how the system is designed to run. To challenge it, some brave soul could simply walk the other direction. (Similar to going "up" a downstairs elevator.)
I have to agree with your statement regarding women in leadership positions. For years, women have always been viewed outside of the scope of leadership for countless reasons, mainly due to the "traditional gender roles" involving women being nurturing caretakers and men being the "breadwinners." It's safe to say that women have demonstrated more than capability in positions of power; we have seen this in our government at the state and federal level with Senate members and State Representatives such as Kamala Harris (CA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY).
ReplyDeleteI also like your mention of the diversity wheel - I believe "normal" is an archaic term that doesn't seem to fit in our society anymore. How does one define normal? Especially when we have our own unique traits and characteristics, is normal an acceptable term to use? Or is it just a term that we use to uphold our privilege?