Blog Post ONE Reflection

 Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan Johnson

While reading through the text, I felt like Allan Johnson was a mind reader. He points out the uncomfortability of a possible white reader seeing the “isms” or a cringe at a suggested “privilege”.  Although I don’t object to the reality of those terms existing in everyday life, I’ve become weary of the weight of that vocabulary in the current United States political climate. As of March 2025, 350+ words have been banned and removed from all government websites. The lexicon of words that vanished all have to do with “isms” or, “privileges”. Two  of the most ridiculous being “clean drinking water” and “women” 

This collection Johnson had written was well before the current hellscape of the war on woke and identity politics. My brain started to think deeply about who I was right around 2016. A sort of dark time to be an aspiring feminist when SJW’s and PC culture were the butt of many jokes. Being told by male classmates that the wage gap was a myth, or that women already have equal rights. Or the classic, women don't make good leaders. All dehumanizing and unintelligent takes on current issues, but what do you expect from 6th graders? The scary part is that these 12 year olds grew up to be young adults of voting age, with no change in ideology. So when reading Johnson’s work I felt the red rush over my face, and I was sent back to a time when I tried so desperately to explain systems of oppression to those in positions of privilege. Then being ridiculed for even suggesting that we still live in an oppressive state of life here in the USA. 

 So I permeate on this, it must not be mistaken that the current political agenda of gutting DEI initiatives is fueled by the Right-Wing to further divide working class voters against each other. Class solidarity is the biggest unifying factor right now, and the biggest threat to modern power and privilege is an acknowledgment of our collective suffering underneath the oppressive powers. 

https://pen.org/banned-words-list/