Chapter 7

Chapter 7 deals with how the systems of privilege work. The first system being Dominance this basically means that the position of power is occupied by the privileged group and no one else. Johnson first uses the example of men being in power the majority of the time; thus it is “natural” to see them there. This does not mean that all men are in power and that they are all “powerful”; most men think of themselves as weak, Johnson says because they are ether disabled or of another race. He goes on to say how people are identified with privilege. He uses the expression “this is a mans world” (Johnson, 95) and says that it could also be identified as other things like a “white:” world or a “non disabled” world. This basically is showing the best that society has to offer. This give a false idea of what you have to do to “fit in” as he says college students of color feel pressured to dress white to be accepted. In the end he starts to talk about the “-isms” most are words that we are all familiar with; racism, sexism etc. these are all just showing that there is no way that the privileged and the unprivileged can get along.

Johnson has made a lot of good points in this book, and most of them I can really agree with. With the issue of Dominance is one that I really liked because I could no find any thing that wasn’t far form the truth, most men in power are around those that are like them. We really don’t see that many women in power, and if there are, there is probably one or two. He also makes a good point about this being a mans world, but this is only because that’s how they want it to be shown. James Brown said it the best when he said that this is a mans world, but it would be nothing without a woman. If you think about it, he is right. Women actually have the most power being that they bring life into this world, and with out women there would be no more humans in the world. We owe a lot to the women in the world, but yet and still there are people that could care less and they are not shy at showing it. All and all this was a very informative chapter, There many people that feel that they are dominant and there are those who look at themselves as nothing, but it us all a mindset, the only difference in this and what I have been saying the whole time is that you cannot change this mindset; this is something that has come from years of the same way of thought thus it is hard to star and think differently.