Provo;ege, Power, and Difference: What Can We Do? -Allan G. Johnson

• Privilege
• Power
• Difference
• Racism
• Sexism
• Homogeneous
• Exclusion
• Rejection

Allan Johnson argues that racism, sexism, privilege, harassment, discrimination, rejection, and exclusion are the challenges we face every day in our society and they have existed for hundreds of years. Unless white males in power accept these challenges and attempt to change them, the silence and invisibility of privilege and oppression will continue. Johnson does offer key points for his readers which support the choices towards making a difference.

1. "The more you pay attention to privilege and oppression, the more you'll see opportunities to do something about them. You don't have to mount an expedition to fund opportunities: they're all over the place, beginning with you. "
2. Attentive listening is especially difficult for members of dominant groups. If someone confronts you with your own behavior that supports privilege, step off the path of least resistance that encourages you to defend and deny."
3. Understanding how privilege and oppression operate and how you participate is where working for change begins."
4. A key to the continued existence of every system of privilege is unawareness, because privilege contradicts so many basic human values that it invariably arouses opposition when people know about it."

I have always enjoyed reading Allan Johnson's words. They are fair yet precise, bold yet meaningful. I believe all students in college should be required to read Privilege, Power, and Difference because many students are unaware of the main topics mentioned but are important and should be acknowledged by all professors. With the recognition from schools on such important issues they can make a difference and aid in the process towards correcting this problem.