Kevin Crowe

Reflection on Privilege Power and Difference by Alan Johnson

Reflection: In chapter 1, the author talks about the idea of how social systems create advantages for some individuals or groups while also disadvantaging others. This chapter talks about what it is like to be privileged and how it affects certain people in today's society. He talks about how these advantages and disadvantages are not the result of people's actions but are placed in larger social structures and organizations. He also talks about the importance of understanding and acknowledging these certain patters that keep on happening in order to solve the problem of social inequality.  When I was reading this, one thing that I found very interesting was the diversity wheel chart. This chart shows how different things can affect the privilege of a person. The author discusses certain forms of privilege such as race, gender, and class and how they add up to create life experiences of either advantages or disadvantages. As I was reading this, I really started to think about how my life could have been different if I was to recognize the advantages and disadvantages people had to go through due to being privileges. A big question that I have is how different things in your life change based on how privileged you are. I ask this because if you are more privileged than somebody else in any way, then you are going to have an advantage over them. Same thing goes for being disadvantaged, if somebody else is more privileged than you will be at a disadvantage.  The author made me think about reflecting on my life and thinking about my place and how privileged I am. Attached Here is a link that brings us to learn more about how race and children affect our lives every day. Many people seem to avoid these conversations and discussions when brought up because they feel as though some sign of disrespect will be taken. This author does a really good job talking about the stuff that people avoid daily and do not want to talk about. This just goes to show the problems we live through in our society.