Talking Point 10

Talking Point 10: “What Can We Do?” by Allan Johnson

Premise:
• Taking action
• Privilege and oppression
• Beating limitations
• Reaching out to others
• Making a network of people to combat oppression
• Historical developments
• People need to learn to listen
• Be a leader
• Set the standard
• Tell other people that you do not agree with dominant popular views
• Read and gather wide support to fight racism, sexism, ableism and others

Author’s Argument:
Johnson argues that in order to quell the privilege that leads to oppressive treatment towards different groups of people, society at large needs to speak out against privilege and stop the oppression against these various groups. He also discusses that by setting up a network of people in support groups will also help to limit such oppressive treatment of others.

Evidence:
1. “No social system last forever, and this fact holds especially fro oppressive systems of privilege. We can’t know what will replace existing social systems, but we can be confident that they will go, that they are gong at every moment.”
2. “…Rather than trying to change people, the most important thing we can do is contribute to shifting entire cultures so that forms and values that support privilege begin to lose their “obvious” legitimacy and normalcy, and new forms emerge to challenge their privileged place in social life.”
3. “In many ways, the biggest challenge for members of privileged groups is to work with one another on issues of privilege rather than trying to help members of subordinate groups.”

Questions/Comments/Point to Share:
I thought Johnson’s article to be truly inspirational and empowering and called for action to be taken against the oppression of inferior social groups to the ‘culture of power.’ Johnson engaged me and showed me that by changing little aspects of my life such as not laughing at a homosexual joke can be a good step in the right direction as to squelching privilege. The article was a smooth read and highly enjoyable because of the writing style and the messages that he delineates throughout. It relates to the first Johnson reading that we read that stated how a society in general needed to take action if privilege and prejudice against other groups was to be stopped. This reading in my opinion is the best of the semester and I enjoyed the message that he gave that by taking steps in my own life to fight privilege and the ‘culture of power’ this can help to elicit change in society at large.