Allan G. Johnson and S.C.W.A.A.M.P

     The acronym S.C.W.A.A.M.P. stands for whiteness, American-ness, straightness, Christianity, able-bodiedness, maleness, and property ownership which are all of which are deeply ingrained cultural cornerstones.

    Allan G. Johnson's essay Privilege, Power, and Difference explains how to approach the topics of racism, oppression, inequality, and other forms of discrimination. Society as a whole continues to grapple with white privilege and power, as well as the hidden systemic racism and sexism that exists. Johnson demonstrates in his first three chapters how individuals might accept that their privileges are a problem and work toward a solution. Johnson's perspective of “getting along"  is a great but unrealistic.  He states, "we don't need to love one another - or even like one another - to work together or just share space in the world" (6). Johnson is essentially saying that in order for society to coexist happily, we just need to appreciate one another. Yet in today’s society it it’s seem unrealistic due to the fact many just can’t treat others with kindness. privilege is what causes division, it is the root of this separation that sets us up against one another. We are separated into groups based on our income, wealth, race, religion, gender, stereotypes, health, and standard of living. This separation encourages distrust, violence and harassment, fury, and discrimination and is usually the reasoning to such dehumanizing actions towards one another.

     Humans are born into a competitive nature, someone always must believe they are better than another. This causes the creation of peace to be destroyed, along with equality.  Everybody has a unique experience, and privilege can take many different shapes and forms. People are not always bound by the privilege we think they have, we need to be open to other people's experiences and have those difficult conversations that prevent us from the change we long for. As much as I would love for everyone to all get along, it is the unfortunate matter that it’s just too unrealistic due to the behavior that is already normalized in today’s society. 





Comments

  1. Dr. Joyce StevosSeptember 9, 2024 at 7:41 AM

    Love the pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  2. MylesSeptember 10, 2024 at 4:47 PM

    Reading this post made me think about music and how it has come up with a solution to this problem. When playing music it doesn't matter what race, gender, sexuality, or even status the person sitting next to you is. In that moment they are a musician, same as you, and same as everyone else. Furthermore, if your goal in music is to be better than everyone else then you're doing it wrong. The goal of being a musician is always to help those around you become better.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tessa RSeptember 10, 2024 at 5:46 PM

    Something to consider is that as humans we label others, and forget at the end of the day that we all have the same label in common as human. I am not saying that labels are fundamentally bad because labeling things with pride is a good thing, but things like mopping the floor vs. lifting heavy boxes one is seen as a "women's" job and the other is seen as a "man's" job, that's when the idea becomes skewed. This now implies that woman can't do a mans job or are more incompetent that they can't do the more challenging task. The label of being gay is not inherently bad but the moment that I do an action and someone points out that it is "gay" in a derogatory manner that's when labels become bad. As a society we need to stop labeling actions as ways that people identify as or else we are not going to be able to work towards equality

    ReplyDelete
  4. AlanaSeptember 10, 2024 at 7:46 PM

    I like the quote you added in, I also found it important to explain that we as a society simply need to respect one another and we don't necessarily have to strive to love each other. As humans we all deserve respect.

    ReplyDelete

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