Reading Journal #10

"The trouble is rooted in a legacy we all inherited, and while we're here, it belongs to us. It isn't our fault, but now that it's ours, it's up to us to decide how we're going to deal with it before we pass it along to generations to come."

I foudn this quote endearing an insightrful because it seems to accurately describe the situation of privilege in the United States. In modern white society (the domiannt group with the greatest amount of privilege), we did not bestow it upon oursleves. It came to us through hundreds of years and dozens of generations of subjugation and comparing one group to another. I say subjugation in terms that whites have oppressed others, and that is how they became the majority group. However, this facet of skin color is not the only way a certain group became dominant. In the case of sexual orientation, heterosexuals are dominant; in physical ability, those without handicaps are dominant; and, perhaps the greatest discrepancy, men flood their authority over women. In the text, the author brings up a significant point: Privilege is as much a part of the problem as difference. We cannot say that simply because one group is separate from another that problems will arise. Problems arise because one group views themselves as better, greater, more worthy of certain benefits than another. That group acts upon those incliantions, granting itself power over the other, and that is where inequality becomes a social reality. The dominant group decides what is "normal" or "adequate" and all subsequent groups not part of that stratification must conform or become pariahs.

That said, it is no wonder that the domiant group acts somewhat as an exclusive club, granting privilege to those it perceives to be of adequate quality. This, perhaps, is the greatest problem when it coems to granting privilege and equality. It does not matter what individual attributes the person possesses that make he or she a worthy person. For example, a black man may have the same or greater intelligence than a white man but simply because he is black, he will not be accepted as a white man would. And the funniest part is that those of a privileged group complain about the privileges they "don't have". For instance, a white man who claims he doesn't have all the things that others of his stainding have feels that he is not privileged. The mere fact that he is white is enough to grant him higher standing in society than someone of color or even a woman. It is a pathetic fact of society but reference groups are exploited every day. The dominating group uses them to compare themselves, almost to shower their overwhelming power over those who have no way to get out of their situation. If things are to change for the better and if equality and privilege is to be distributed in an adequate manner, the privileged must truly see how broad the dividing line is and how they can modify its width, how others can feel a part of a powerful society in which, currently, power is allocated to one specific division.