I Don't Mean to Go on a Rant Here... (Allan Johnson Article)

I believe we all, at some point, have taken for granted the social and cultural contexts of our school systems. We tend to teach from our own cultural perspective, ethnic background, sexual orientation, and specific gender. People engage in this behavior because, naturally, these characteristics are inescapable. Sometimes we do not even realize the privilege, or lack thereof, that is inherit within these aforementioned attributes. This is why I feel as though the article Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson provides a solid foundation as to what this graduate course seems to be all about- understanding, accepting, and acknowledging the differences among each and every one of us. Johnson, within this article, argues about “the existence of privilege and the lopsided distribution of power that keeps it going.” (pg. 15) In a sense, he is reiterating the fact that if we do not acknowledge this existence of privilege, then humans will only exacerbate the problems that occur when power is unevenly distributed. He provides numerous examples throughout this reading that cite evidence of a “lopsided distribution of power.” The one-sidedness that Johnson refers to, he believes, tends to favor a society that “attaches privilege to being white and male and heterosexual” (pg. 10)

An example Johnson gave supporting this white-male privilege is located on page 30 of the article, which states “whites don’t find themselves slotted into occupations identified with their race.” After reading this statement, I immediately thought of a commercial that aired on the Lifetime Network in support of a segment known as “real women.” This segment contained a brief interview with Christy Haubegger, the creator of Latina Magazine. In the commercial, she recalls a story of inequality about a time she was gathering ice in an expensive hotel to take back into her room. An older couple spotted her and asked if she planned on bringing ice back to all the rooms. This older couple, whether intentional or not, used their power and privilege to assume that because Christy was Latina, there was no possible way she could afford a room in the hotel and therefore must be a maid. (For more on Christy, here is an LA Times article on her backstory: Latina Young Founder Takes Aims at Women Just Like Her ) This personal account of Christy’s life truly provides a real-world example of how people make assumptions based solely on the way a person looks. Also, it emphasizes the fact that despite how hard we, as people, may work to better ourselves, “it doesn’t matter who we really are. What matters is who other people think we are.” (pg. 35)

              Being the product of an all-girls high school, I have had teachers who pushed us, as young women, to become more than the gender stereotypes that followed women for centuries. We were told to explore fields in math and science, as well as pursue athletics and politics. Johnson mentions in this article that he found “men dominate virtually every major organization and institution, from corporations to government to organized sports and religion” (pg. 3), which is probably why my high school promoted the idea of women in these male controlled areas. As a baseball fan (I’m still attempting to learn as much as I can), I have tried to find ways in which career women participate in this sport. Watching FOX or MLB Network, I’ve noticed the broadcasters are all male, which is permissible seeing the vast majority of sports announcers have played the game themselves, so I’ll let that slide. 

Braves Game- 2010

The Yankees radio network is hosted by John Sterling and co-hosted by Suzyn Waldman. Sterling calls the game as it is in progress while Waldman is the color commentator (she is the third women in MLB history to have that position). Typically, when I find women in sports, they are used as the eye-candy reporter who seems to get just enough camera time to mumble something about whatever game they are covering and flash a pretty smile (cut to 2002 Miss California runner-up Heidi Watney from NESN or Erin Andrews, ESPN announcer voted by Playboy as “America’s Sexiest  Sportscaster” in 2007 and 2008). When I went to a

Heidi Watney

Braves game in Georgia, there were girls in booty shorts and Braves jerseys that merely had the job of greeting you as you 

Erin Andrews

came in, dancing on top of the dugout, and helping the mascot throw baseballs into the crowd. Like Johnson points out in his article, “men don’t have to deal with an endless and exhausting stream of attention drawn to their gender (for example, to how sexually attractive they are.)” (pg. 31)

Johnson, overall, successfully points out how we need to be more aware of this idea on privilege. The less we acknowledge it, the greater that power divide will become. Johnson provided numerous bulleted points that specifically cite in what ways whites and people of color, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and males and females are perceived in certain situations. I believe this powerful conversation will be brought to the forefront of this graduate class, centering around the theme of social and cultural awareness in not only our classrooms, but in our everyday lives.