PPD Ch.5

Johnson states that privilege must be as much of an issue for the dominant groups as it is for those who bear the brunt of the oppression it causes in everyday life. The key is to engage members of the dominant groups with issues of privilege as an ongoing, permanent part of their lives. There needs to be a way to remove the barriers that keep well-intentioned members of dominant groups stuck in a place where they don’t see themselves as part of the solution. The best way to accomplish this is to have serious conversations across differences and to act across the same differences toward ending the suffering of indifference.
Johnson argues his viewpoint on the basis of others experiences and thoughts on why dominant groups don’t engage in the issues at hand. Here are the viewpoints of why dominant groups don’t see privilege as a problem: Because they don’t know that it exists, they don’t have to acknowledge it, they think it’s just a personal problem, they want to keep their privileges, they may be prejudiced-racists-sexists-heterosexist-ableist-and classist, and finally because they are afraid.
Johnson doesn’t provide much insight for future solutions in this chapter. However I agree on his viewpoint that short-run competitive thinking is making nearly impossible to achieve a world without privilege and oppression, and that we need to develop a commitment to change. The commitment to change must come from both the oppressed and privileged groups. I believe that we are on our way to achieve this goal considering the awareness of the issue that surrounds our everyday life. Since the mid 1900’s and the civil rights movements we have developed social consciousness of matters pertaining to privilege and oppression.
This reading helped me realize the strides we have made since the civil rights movements, yet it displays the struggle we still face today concerning inequalities and statuses in todays society. Most of us have seemingly developed an understanding of privlege vs. oppressed, it is now time to stand up to the inequalties to fix the problem.