Privileage, Power, and Difference

 Privilege Power and Difference 

Author: Alan Johnston 

Reflection: This article primarily focused on the idea of privilege and how it is a social construct. Meaning, certain concepts like “racism” are not real, rather created from the minds of the dominant individuals. One of his points particularly stood out to me because I felt like I could relate to it. He mentioned that  (and other minorities) have less necessary basic principles to succeed than a man. He also mentions that there are rarely female politicians because some people take them less seriously (intentionally/unintentionally). And it's not only politicians it applies to other careers as well. I have some friend

s in engineering and computer science classes and they tell me that their male peers expect less of them. This happens in the real world too with professional jobs. At my job, I would have to work as a minigolf shed to pass out golf balls and clubs. It is also our job to fix batting cages which break all the time, very similarly to mechanical engineering. When I work with a white male coworker, the typical white male customer will disregard me even if I am standing closer to them and ask the male for help. The man skipped over me almost like I was not as capable to fix something as a white man was. Those moments stick with me. In a psychology class I learned that how people perceive you, can play a huge role in how you see yourself. That can apply to this situation because subconsciously I feel subordinate to the male in competition. Another example of a minority that he exclaimed was homosexual individuals. I still remember my elementary school friend wrote me a Google Doc about her coming out. I was shocked it took her so long to say this to her best friend of almost 10 years, but then I realized something. I thought to myself how I would feel if I had to admit to the world I was gay and I would feel uncomfortable doing so. In my mind, I would imagine people treating me so differently for something that should not negatively affect other people's lives.