Summary of Johnson's chapter 6

1. Johnson’s theme in chapter six is that instead of blaming the problem of privilege and power on individuals, it should rather be blamed on the social groups, whether they be at school, in a job, or in our entire country. He says that the problem cannot be corrected unless groups of people take a stand against the minority or against the path of least resistance. In order to do that, groups of people need to give up their privileges that they have in order to make a statement to the rest of our nation.
2. Johnson begins the chapter explaining that the reason no one discusses power and privilege is because they are too afraid that they will be judged unfairly because of it. He explains the reason for this on page 77 when he says, “everything bad in the world is seen as somebody’s fault, which is why talk about privilege so often turns into a game of hot potato. Individualistic thinking keeps us stuck in the trouble by making it so hard to talk about it.” He then says that power and privilege have nothing to do with individuals it has to do with the social categories we wind up in. Johnson explains that the place to start is realizing that individualistic thinking is wrong and that the social world consists of a lot more than individuals. He explains that we learn our identity in this country through social groups such as families, schools, religion, and the mass media through examples set by family, school, religion, teachers and public figures. Johnson says that another reason why this is a problem is because people follow the paths of least resistance. He explains this to mean that people often take the easy way of helping people of the same social status as them rather then the more uncomfortable option of helping someone who has a different social status. He states, “Managers of this profile [white, straight, male and nondisabled] probably won’t realize they’re following a path of least resistance that shapes their choice until they’re asked to mentor an African American woman or someone else they don’t resemble.” He says people stick to this path because they are afraid of what will happen if they don’t. He then concludes that social life works through the relationships between individuals and social systems. In order to fix the problem Johnson also suggests that we need to see how systems are organized in ways that encourage people to follow paths of least resistance, because power and privilege are rooted in systems that we all participate in and make happen. He says on page 85, “If we have a visions of what we want social life to look like, we have to create paths that lead in that direction.” He says it is important to raise awareness, because most people don’t even know that they’re following paths of least resistance. The problem is that the vast majority of good people are silent on these issues and that it is the “good” people’s responsibility to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
3. I think his idea of paths of least resistance is definitely true. Most people look to get out of sticky situations the easy way rather then stand up for what is right. I agree that it will take a large group to make concessions and stand up for the people of lesser social status in order to do something about the problem. This chapter is well written and easily understandable and he makes many valid points about why nothing is being done about power and privilege.
4. In my opinion, a group of people in the dominant social group will not be formed anytime soon. Our society is a capitalistic society, this means that the people at the top of the food chain are greedy and always want more. So they would never in their wildest dream want to stand up for the people who are in lesser social groups, because if they do that they will lose their power and privilege.