Privilege Power and Difference- Alan Johnson

 

Reflection: Students from around the world are constantly judged by individuals based on their sexual orientation, race, and even gender. We however, are the problem in this modern day society. I feel as though as the human race evolves more, the older generation has a harder time keeping up with our changes, and do not respect it in the slightest bit, especially white males as mentioned in the text. I always hear older individuals say how back in the day, kids are not like how they were, like of course we aren't! Roots for racism and stereotyping often run so deep that people do not even realize that it is hurting students. There is no change in these stereotypical ways because whenever the discussion of "change" pops up, everyone's first reaction is to get defensive. Instead of saying "How am I connected to this issue and how can we change it", it's "I am not the problem", and the world goes on without a change in actions. But defensive feelings are okay, and I never honestly thought of it from Alan's perspective. He brought to light it gives a "common ground" to work towards that change. As Alan said, we literally cannot get along, and "the problem of the color line" remains in modern day society. I personally do not take offense or feel some type of way whenever "white privilege" is mentioned because I see that there is a problem in society, and I am not afraid to run from it. Truth is, us as humans have the ability to adapt and learn in so many ways; we literally grow humans and teach them how to adapt on their own (if that is not hard then I do not know what is) but cannot change our feelings towards students with different sexual orientations, race, gender, etc. It is so unreasonable why a student goes to school and feels judges by not only their students because Lord knows how brutal kids are, but their superiors as well. A world where students have to watch their every move and wonder if judgment will be passed behind their backs. A world where being white is considered a privilege. fighting systems racism k-12