Privilege, Power and Difference + S.C.W.A.A.M.P - Reflection

    In Alan Johnson's work, "Privilege, Power and Difference'' many thought provoking ideas are presented pertaining to privilege in today's society and how those privileges play into the active oppression of others. In this blog post I have decided to write a reflection on how I personally can relate to the text and points brought up in Johnson's writing. Throughout the text it is repeatedly brought to the reader's attention that there are people in our society that have inherent privileges bestowed upon them, basically, from birth. Some of the privileges align with being straight, male, christian, able bodied and so on. These automatic head starts often push those without these identifiers to the back. I myself am lacking many of the privileges that Johnson and many others have. I am not straight nor am I what typical society would view as male. As a transgender man, I was raised female and misogyny affected and am still closely affected by many of the struggles of a woman in the sect of woman's right to choose and so on. For example, I am a person who still needs access to abortion options that are actively being threatened, by things such as the overturn of Roe v Wade. Additionally I am not straight, I am bisexual. I am a queer individual through and through which directly opens me up to discrimination and opression. I directly relate to the topic brought up in the text as a person who is diffidently not a SCWAAMP. This text made me think about just how much further our society needs to progress to move to a point where all start on an even playing field. 

In addition to my personal connection with the oppression brought up in this text. I was also given a sense of hope, as it was written by a straight/cis, white man who realizes his place in the societal structure that has been created and is using that platform to promote change. He saw that to truly make a change we must first act. We must realize our places in this system and use those places accurately to make change. Tough and sometimes uncomfortable discussions must be had to push us forward. 

A point to share in class is going to be focused on how people must be aware of their standing within these systems and begin to open a dialogue on these hard topics. While it may be hard, the first step in moving away from these places of privilege and oppression is to open a discussion about how they exist in the first place. Problems must be acknowledged before they can be solved.