Johnson Chapter 8 post

1. For chapter eight I think Johnson’s thesis is his very last sentence It reads, “Sooner or later, the dominant groups must embrace this hook they’re on, not as some terrible affliction or occasion for guilt and shame but as a challenge and an opportunity. It’s where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going.”
2. Johnson begins his eighth chapter by stating that subordinate groups are on the hook everyday and that so are the dominant groups. But the dominant groups are more likely not to notice it because they have a multitude of ways to through privilege to get away with not noticing it. He says one way people get off the hook is denying that there is a hook in the first place. But he says that they are in a poor position because of that because they rarely know what they’re talking about. People of dominant groups define the experience for the other groups without even experiencing it. Another way of denial is by people of dominant groups seeing people of subordinate groups as better off than they are even though this is clearly not the case. Therefore oppression is blamed on the people who suffer most from it while the people of privilege remain invisible and untouched. Another claim that Johnson points out is that people think that everyone prefers things the way they are right now. For example, a white person may say that an African American would rather live with other African Americans rather than in an integrated neighborhood. Another problem is that people hate to take the blame for the problem. Johnson says on page 117, “Since I can make a good case that I’m not a bad person, then the trouble wouldn’t have anything to do with me.” But he later falsifies this claim on page 118 when he says, “But the truth is that my silence, my inaction and especially my passive acceptance of the everyday privilege that goes along with group membership are all it take to make me just as much a part of the problem as any member of the Klan.“ We would rather people see us as individuals than part of a social category. But at the same time when it is to our advantage we would like people to treat as if we were in that privileged category. Whites being treated well is not a problem, rather other people not being treated the same way is the problem. The problem is that people of the privileged category are unaware of the fact that they get treated better than people not of that category. Many people of the privileged class feel they are not treated any better, but in reality there is no neutral ground on which to stand. The privileged often say they are bombarded with the claims that they are treated better all of the time and they are insulted by it. But Johnson then offers this quote, “In reality, ‘all the time’ come down to ‘enough to make me look at what I don’t want to look a, enough to make me uncomfortable.’ And usually that doesn’t take much.” Johnson ends the chapter stating that this will never end until the privileged embrace the hook that they are on.
3. I believe the author makes some very valid claims in this chapter. People of the privileged class hate hearing that they are treated better than others and don’t have as many problems. They never want to accept the fact that they are treated better and have advantages in all aspects of life. In order for the power and privilege to end people of the privileged class will have to accept this and give up some of their advantages to change the situation.
4. I thought this chapter was excellent and explained a lot of the reasons why people in privileged places don’t like to talk about the subject and why nothing ever gets done to fix the situation. But even if every single person in the privileged class read this chapter, I honestly don’t even think that would help either.