Privilege, Power, and Difference

This brief book is a groundbreaking tool for students and non-students alike to examine systems of privilege and difference in our society. Written in an accessible, conversational style, Johnson links theory with engaging examples in ways that enable readers to see the underlying nature and consequences of privilege and their connection to it. This extraordinarily successful book has been used across the country, both inside and outside the classroom, to shed light on issues of power and privilege.

Allan Johnson has worked on issues of social inequality since receiving his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1972. He has more than thirty years of teaching experience and is a frequent speaker on college and university campuses. Johnson has earned a reputation for writing that is exceptionally clear and explanations of complex ideas that are accessible to a broad audience.

This brief supplemental book provides students with an easily applied theoretical model for thinking about systems of privilege and difference. Writing in accessible, conversational prose, Johnson joins theory with engaging examples in ways that enable students to see the nature and consequences of privilege and their connection to it.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-191) and index.

Introduction

1. Rodney King?s Question

2. We?re in Trouble

We Can?t Talk About It If We Can?t Use the Words

3. The Trouble We?re In: Power, Privilege, and Difference

Difference Is Not the Problem/

Mapping Difference: Who Are We?/

The Social Construction of Difference/

What Is Privilege?/

Privilege as Paradox/

Oppression: The Flip Side of Privilege/

4. Capitalism, Class, and The Matrix of Domination

How Capitalism Works/

Capitalism and Class/

Capitalism, Difference, and Privilege: Race and Gender/

The Matrix of Domination and the Paradox of Being Privileged and Unprivileged at the Same Time

5. Making Privilege Happen

Avoidance, Exclusion, Rejection, and Worse/

Trouble for Whom?/

And That?s Not All/

We Can?t Heal Until the Wounding Stops/

6. The Trouble with the Trouble

7. Privilege, Power, Difference, and Us

Individualism: Or, the Myth that Everything Is Somebody?s Fault/

Individuals, Systems, and Paths of Least Resistance/

(and more...)