Chapter 6/ Johnson

The main thesis in this chapter was that the way which people live their lives and the way they act on a daily basis, is based on what social structure they are in. The way people look at privilege is based on what class and race they are apart of. For instance a upper class white male will look at privilege a totally different way than a black lower class does. Another main thought from this chapter is indivdualism. This thought that people look at privilege as individuals instead of social categories.

Johnson talks about how we live our lives not based on individualism, but as a social system. A social system is basically your race, gender, and financial situation categorizes you in a social system. He says that our lives are formed b socialization and paths least resistance. Paths least resistance is this thought that humnas will do anything they have to, to avoid akward situations. His example is, say a person has strong opinion on the presidential race. Well, if the person he is talking to has a different thought on the subject they will not say it becasue it would cause for a debate and a akward situation. I agree with the example where he says it is most likely for white people to get promtoed in a company over a black person because the people who are doing the promotion want to teach someone who is most similar to him. So if a white male is doing the promoting in a company he will promote a white male over a black female wven if they both have the same work ethics. Lastly he goes back to what privelege is and how its precieved. He explains how alot fo white people wont admit to being racists against blacks but when it comes time to pick a black over a white, white people will never do it.

The first discussion question for this chapter was, in the year 2050 there will be more black people then white people. With that in mind will blacks ever sort of overthrow whites in the top of the social triangle and will there ever be racism against white people more then there is against blacks? My first awnser to that question would be to say that blacks will never over throw whites, but it is a very more complex awnser to think about than just that. My second question is , will the myth that everything is someones fault ever die?

I thought that this chater in Johnson held my attention a little better than Zinn does, but that the same time I think that Johnson is a little harder to understand. To understanding Johnson it takes me to read the material twice and always have a dictionary by my side. Once i get the concept of the chapter though it helps me alot to understandig the material and what he is trying to say.