For my Blog Post #1, I am posting about Allan G. Johnson's excerpt from "Privilege, Power,
and Difference". Allan G. Johnson's Website
(Beginning of Text): At the beginning of the text, the author starts with the premise "that a
great deal of trouble surrounds issues of difference in this society" including "trouble relating
to gender and race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and social class". The author continues that
"All of us are part of the problem." The contends that "we could also make ourselves part of
the solution if we only knew how." This ties into later in the text, the author concludes that
in the United States, "privilege is organized according to race", which reminds me that there
is implicit bias, even if people don't always realize it including with yourself.
(Middle of Text): In Chapter 2, there is an except regarding the white male author,
Dr. Johnson, and his African American woman colleague and friend, regarding race
and gender. In his example, Dr. Johnson mentions that when going shopping that he'll
"probably get waited on faster and better than she will." He states that he will "benefit
from the cultural assumption that I'm a serious customer when he doesn't need to be
followed around to keep me from stealing something", and that the clerk won't ask me for
3 kinds of IDs before accepting my check or accepting my credit card. Also, further into the
middle of the text, Dr. Johnson mentions the Diversity Wheel, and shifting a few parts of the
diversity wheel for most people would be enough to change their lives dramatically. One
example that the author gives, besides gender and race, is what if you went from being
physically able to having to use a wheelchair? The closest that I can relate to this is when I
broke my leg playing Little League baseball in 5th grade. I need to have some assistance
with friends carrying my books in school. Back then and at that age, students enjoyed helping
and also getting to leave class a few minutes early, which mostly they still do in these
circumstances. Also, in the middle of the text, Dr. Johnson describes the "social construction" of
reality, and how the definitions of different "races" change historically. I was watching a
documentary on Ed Sullivan and his show yesterday on Netflix, and how he invited "Black" acts
to perform on his show before anyone else, including a 13 year old Stevie Wonder, and
The Jackson 5. The documentary mentioned that Harlem in New York City, where Mr. Sullivan
grew up, was predominately Irish and Jewish in those days. The documentary mentioned that he
couldrelate since there were many stereotypes of the Irish, which he was, which made him want to
promote "Black" artists when others were not.
In Dr. Johnson's reading, he mentions the Irish and Jewish groups, along with Italians and
people from a number of Eastern European countries, which were "long considered to be by the
dominant white Anglo-Saxon Protestants of England and the United States to be members of a
non-white "race".
(End of Text): In Chapter 3, Dr. Johnson talks about "conferred dominance" which is one group
having power over another. For example, the "common pattern of men controlling conversations
with women, for example, is grounded in a cultural assumption that men are supposed to
dominate women." In social media, for example, the late Charlie Kirk toured college campuses and
rallied against what he considered to be "liberalism", including feminism. He stated that it is the man's
job to lead, and provided "evidence" from the Bible backing this up (in his opinion). You also see this
now in current social media posts, including on Facebook Reels, by some women. Dr. Johnson in his
reading continues that "Conferred Dominance also manifests itself in race privilege". The author
continues that due to hostile defensiveness, "this reluctance to come to terms with more serious and
entrenched forms for privilege is why most diversity programs produce limited and
short-lived results."
Argument Statement: Dr. Johnson argues that his primary goal is to change how people think about issues of difference and privilege. The "elephant" is a society where a
decent and productive social life continues to be elusive, and in its place is "trouble", that
privileges some groups at the expense of others, including with class, race, gender, and
sexual orientation. Privilege is always at someone else's expense and always
exacts a cost.
Connections and Additional Personal Thoughts: From the 1st section of the reading, the author states that our own defensive reaction has done more than anything else to keep
us stuck in order to instead, to become part of the solution. The author relates that as a
white, heterosexual, middle class professional, he can relate, but as a sociologist, he knows
that it's possible to get over their defense reactions in order to impact change. I can relate
to these feelings, since I have a similar background to the author, and when I teach in my
urban school (the students are mostly bused in from Providence), I try to picture myself in
the "shoes" of my students in order to relate. In fact, I just had a discussion in my 2nd to
last math class with a couple students on Friday, since the directive from our school's
leadership can be mixed. They want us to develop great relationships with our students,
in the warm - firm mode, but also to maintain our school's Administration's expectations
with strong classroom management and student behavior, including tech use while in
class, and want us to "document all infractions in Skyward", our student grading, most staff has not received training on. In fact, during our last class on Friday, during my
10th grade Geometry class at 1pm, there was a silent student walkout, coordinated
with the greater Providence and Rhode Island student walkout that occurred this past
Friday, and all my students "walked out". One student told me prior that I could not stop
him. I told him I wouldn't even try. When it came time at 1pm for this walkout, some
students were looking at me. I told them to "do whatever you need to do". In fact, I am
glad that they all "walked out" and participated. Students did a silent walk around the
school with signs protesting the recent oppressive acts by ICE in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
From the 2nd part of the reading, I can relate to the 2nd talking point that I listed above
regarding race, as when I got my first job out of college around 35 years ago, I was an
Assistant Manager Trainee, and then Assistant Manager after a couple months in a couple
Footlocker stores in the greater Boston area. I recall being asked by the Store Manager to
"follow" around a group of "kids" around my own age. In fact, I will never forget that one of
these "kids" must have seen how uncomfortable I was, as he told me "to relax" as he figured
out what I was directed to do. Regarding class with the point the author makes, another time
in this same downtown Boylston Street (downtown Boston) store, one of the New Kids On
The Block musicians came in with his entourage including African American "kids"
not instructed to act the same way, but to instead to be very welcoming.
For the 3rd part of the reading, Dr. Johnson talks about "confirmed dominance" and that it
includes one group having power over another. In the text, it states that "Although many
superstar professional athletes are Black, in general black player are held to higher standards
than whites". This reminds me of what goes on in the NFL regarding minority hiring for head
coaches. Although there is "The Rooney Rule", in which NFL team is required to at least
interview one minority candidate for an open head coaching job, it appears that this is generally
not taken seriously. For example, there are a handful of NFL head coaches that are Black,
in disproportion to the percentage of NFL players that are Black. Recently, the head coach
of the Atlanta Falcons, who is Black, was fired, although the Falcons record and recent success
was considerably better than his white head coach peers who kept their jobs. Brian Flores, the current Defensive Coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, who is also Black, who has had numerous defensive successes, and Mr. Flores also had prior success in a
Defensive coaching position with the New England Patriots, did not get a head coaching
job in this hiring cycle. Since Brian Flores still has an open lawsuit against the NFL for
what he thought was not a fair shot of other head coaching positions with a few teams after
being fired as the Head Coach of the Miami Dolphins, due to the NFL's systematic racial
discrimination practices with hiring and retention.
Technology, Links, and Additional Connections:
(Note: I used AI to create some of the hyperlinks automatically, through the Blogger application.)
Here is a picture that I took of the scoreboard at Citi Field last spring during a home game of
the New York Mets vs. the Colorado Rockies. This was "Family Day", where kids drew images of
the baseball players, which the Mets used as their images on the scoreboard when they came to bat.
This image is of Juan Soto, one of the Mets' star players, who is from the Dominican Republic and
is one of the best and highest paid players in Major League Baseball.
In Dr. Johnson's speech on his topics relating to his publication "
Privilege, Power, and Difference", Dr. Johnson deliver's his thoughts in 2015. One of the examples that Dr. Johnson brings up in his presentation is that Don Imus, who had a long time radio show as a "shock jock", was actually doing us a favor by exposing and demonstrating his white privilege and ideals.
Since I worked for Foot Locker for almost 2 years as an Assistant Manager in the early 1990's and there were issues with some of their practices, I located an article from 2020, in the wake of the
George Floyd incident, with steps that retail companies were taking, including Foot Locker, to try to improve their racial equity practices. This ties into my own experience in 1991, which occurred the same year as the
Rodney King incident detailed in Chapter 1 of Dr. Johnson's book ("Rodney King's famous quote: "Can't we all just get along?"). It's both interesting and concerning of the changes, and still no real changes, of what occurred with these racial related violent acts by law enforcement in both 1991 and 2020, almost 30 years later.
Here is a link to a promotional image of Ed Sullivan's documentary, including a list of highlighted
performers on the show.
Here is a video clip of 13 year old Stevie Wonder first performing on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Here is a current article from January 2026, with the current status of Mr. Flores' lawsuit vs. the National Football League.
Here is imagery with Foot Locker's official logos.
