Privilege, power, and difference- Alan Johnson

Quote 1.  'Cant we all just get along?"- Johnson Pg.1, The author is explaining how people see their differences instead of seeing the similarities. Johnson is talking about how racism has turned our country into a two sided place rather than one with unity. 

Quote 2. "Apparently, something powerful does keep us from it, to judge from all the issues there is around issues of difference-- especially in relation to race, gender, sexual orientation, and class."- Johnson Pg. 7.  The author is explaining how people see each other differently just based on the way that they live their lives; as well as where they stand on their socioeconomic class. 

Quote 3. " We live in a society that attaches privilege to being white and male and heterosexual, regardless of your social class. If I don't see how that makes me part of the privilege, I won't see myself as part of the solution." - Johnson, Pg 10. Johnson is understanding the fact that you "have" to recognize the power of privilege to not live in a state of blindness, to that privilege. In order to understand the fact that you are privileged, you have to see the difference in the socio-economic chain. 

This entire reading reminds me a lot of  S.C.W.A.A.M.P, by knowing that you are in a certain section of privilege, you are one more step ahead of fighting against it. Most people have blind privilege, but knowing that you are also part of the issue is the first step. This reading reminded me a lot of this one time where I saw in a movie there was a rich white man who treated his housekeeper horribly due to the fact that she was 1. working for him, and 2. An immigrant that he KNEW she needed him in order to remain in her home.