Priviledge, Power, and Difference

Johnson's account of his struggle to discuss race and gender with his African American female friend reminds me that often people do treat these topics as too "risky" to discuss and rather let them fester in the background of every encounter.  His feelings give way to the defensive reaction he says paralyzes the work towards a solution.  Even though he acknowledges that he did nothing wrong, he understands "the reality of her having to face racism and sexism everyday is connected to the reality that [he doesn't]"(9) . 

Johnson  claims that people are not naturally afraid of the differences in others.   "If we feel afraid  it isn't what we don't know, it is what we think we do know.  The problem is our ideas about what we don't know...And how we think about such things isn't something we're born with.We learn to do it like we learn to tie our shoes, talk, and just about everything else."(17). 

How we think about such things develops from our upbringing and experiences. It becomes easy to forget that not everyone views the world through our lens.  Similarly, we may be viewed differently than others of different races, genders, and classes.  Johnson refers to Shakespeare in Love as an example of how one can be afforded these privileges just by appearing to belong to the group that has been afforded them.  This indicates the privileges not only have nothing to do with who we are as individuals, but also the power lies in those who are perceiving us, not in ourselves.  We must then be aware of how we view others.

Being the tenth anniversary of 9/11 I thought of a presentation  I attended at URI on the first anniversary.  Ten speakers who were personally affected by the attacks had volunteered to speak. The first nine speakers included firefighters, survivors, and relatives of people who lost their lives that day.  The tenth speaker was a young Muslim girl who lost her Aunt in the attacks. After 9/11 she was viciously bullied in school.  Her family owned a small store that was frequently vandalized and then set on fire.  She and her family were forced to move from the home she was born in.  The people who attacked this family were not afraid of what they didn't know-they were afraid of what they thought they knew.  This girl was not treated based on who she was, but rather on how others perceived her.  Sometimes we needed to stop and clean our lenses.

 When Johnson talks of the "trouble" we are in he says it has the potential to ruin entire generations.
Adil Ibrahim in 9/11 Ten Years Later; Growing up Muslim in America says "I think, in some aspects, things have gotten worse since, and in some aspects, they've gotten better. People are more aware of the religion of Islam, and some people are more aware of what the Middle East is, and the differences between the regions and the people there. ... People have become more knowledgeable. But, at the same time, people have become more angry, people's relatives and sons and daughters have died in the war, so there's a hatred there, and I understand that. We need to educate people even more." 
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1670551/september-9-11-muslim-in-america.jhtml

Johnson asserts a lack of awareness is a "paralysis that perpetuates the trouble"(vii).  This reiterates the importance of recognizing our own perspective and biases that Peter McLaren insisted we face.  In addition, I think it is our job as educators to make students aware of their own as well.