Privilege, Power, and Difference » (2nd Edition)

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.

Chapter 1: Rodney King's Question

We're In Trouble

Chapter 2: Privilege, Oppression and Difference

Difference Is Not the Problem

Mapping Difference: Who Are We?

The Social Construction of Difference

What Is Privilege?

Two Types of Privelege

Privilege as Paradox

Oppression: The Flip Side of Privilege

Chapter 3: 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

Chapter 4: Making Privilege Happen

Avoidance, Exclusion, Rejection, and Worse

Trouble for Whom?

And That’s Not All

We Can’t Heal Until the Wounding Stops

Chapter 5: The Trouble with the Trouble

Chapter 6: What It All Has to Do with Us

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

Individuals, Systems, and Paths of Least Resistance

What It Means to Be Involved in Privilege and Oppression

Chapter 7: How Systems of Privilege Work

Dominance

Identified with Privilege

Privilege at the Center

The Isms

The Isms and Us

Chapter 8: Getting Off the Hook: Denial and Resistance

Deny and Minimize

Blame the Victim

Call It Something Else

It’s Better This Way

It Doesn’t Count If You Don’t Mean It

I’m One of the Good Ones

Sick and Tired

Getting Off the Hook by Getting On

Chapter 9: What Can We Do?

Myth#1: “It’s Always Been This Way, and It Always Will Be”

Myth #2: Gandhi’s Paradox and The Myth of No EffectStubborn Ounces: What Can We Do?
Acknowledgements
Notes
Resources
Index