Johnson Chapter 8

Johnson makes several important points in Chapter 8 of “Privilege, Power, and Difference”. The chapter is titled “Getting Off the Hook: Denial and Resistance”. Johnson states that those in privilege use many different techniques to avoid the discomfort and the problem of privilege and oppression. Those in power, those who are white, male, heterosexual, or non-disabled have a difficult time when dealing with the reality of what goes on in our society. Johnson gives several ways that those who experience privilege avoid the concept of the oppression that is cause by privilege. The first example that Johnson gives is “Deny and Minimize”. It is easy to deal with a problem when you deny that it even exists. People do this all the time with both racism and sexism, along with other forms of oppression. Saying that something used to be a problem is the same as saying that it doesn’t matter in today’s society at all when in fact that is just not the case. People also try and minimize situations to make them less uncomfortable to talk about. This happens in everyday life. An example that Johnson gives is when a child falls and scrapes their knee the parent usually says something like “awww…stop crying, it really doesn’t hurt that bad.” This statement may not seem like such a big deal because it is so common. Yet honestly does the parent actually know how much pain the child is in? It works the same way with trying to minimize a social situation. How can you place judgment on something you yourself have never experienced? This is a simple way of how people of privilege try and get “off the hook”. Another method that Johnson describes is “Blame the Victim”. This section of the chapter made a lot of sense to me because I feel like I have seen it in action in my every day life. A person of privilege might say something like “well if they just got an education, or learned to speak proper English…” when talking about a person of color. Women can be affected by the blame the victim statement. When sexual harassment occurs you might hear a male saying something like “Oh, well look at how she dresses. She was asking for it.” This is a clear example of how people “get off the hook” so that they don’t feel bad in problematic situations. The next section of the chapter is entitled “Call it Something Else”. Here is another clear example of how people avoid situations that might be difficult of uncomfortable. Johnson goes on in the following section called “It’s Better this Way”. In this section Johnson describes how people tend to think about issues such as racism and sexism. He uses the example that Blacks would rather live in segregated communities because they want to live with their own kind. In the patriarchal system that we live in today a man might say something like, “women like to clean house and raise children. So what’s wrong with that?” These are common ways of how people us the phrase it’s better this way to make themselves and other feel better about the problems at hand. Johnson follows with a few more examples of the techniques that people use to get themselves “off the hook”. For the most part I can agree with Johnson’s views of how people deal with these problems. It is easy for me to understand this chapter because I see examples of it in my everyday life. In fact I’m sure that I am guilty of using some of these techniques myself. Personally I think that a lot of what people do, they do without knowing, or without knowing the consequences that might arise from what they do or say. I am hopeful in my thinking that if people were more aware of the issues and weren’t afraid to discuss them more openly and without fear then more progress could be made. However as long as people are making excuses and refuse to see the problem then there really can be no solution.