Entry#7 Johnson, A "What it all has to do with us"

Brian Gerker
ETHN 101
Reading Journal Entry #7
9-16-2007

Johnson, A PPD Chapter 6 “What It All Has To Do With Us””

In, “What it all has to do with us,” Johnson begins with his thesis that “The discomfort, defensiveness, and fear come in part from not knowing how to talk about privilege without feeling vulnerable to anger and blame. Facing privilege, and confronting it is easily avoided, most often by following the path of least resistance. Johnson believes that individualism and following the easy path are all linked together with systems and individuals.
In “What it all has to do with us,” Johnson starts by discussing individualism and how “society encourages us to think that the social world begins and ends with individuals.” He says that privileges do not even exist through individualistic thinking. He says how people can either talk about something, or not talk about it. Issues of controversy such as sexism and racism are usually avoided in this way, or not talked about, because people choose not to talk about it, which is the easy path. It all ties in together in social systems. Individual participation within a system is also important, because different systems can cause people to behave differently. Johnson tells about individuals and choosing the “path of least resistance.” His one example shows individual behavior acting in a system was of a person telling a joke. If someone would tell a joke about racism, the easy path would be to smile or laugh, and the hard path would be to resist the joke, or tell someone about the “evil” in it. Johnson says that “as long as we participate in social systems, we don’t get to choose whether to be involved in the consequences they produce . . . whether to be just part of the problem or be part of the solution.” This is the best summary of the passage. Social systems are everywhere, and individuals have to participate in the, there is no way around it. Whether at school, or with your family, or with your friends, you are in a social system that will change behavior of people, taking away their individual “power and also their responsibility.”
One example used by Johnson could raise differences in his arguments. He states that he was on an elevator and faced the opposite way, not looking at the door, and people stared at him or looked at him oddly. In this way he was breaking the social system of the elevator ride, or choosing the path of most resistance. However, if people always took the path of most resistance as Johnson did, there would be nothing but complete chaos. What if everyone in an elevator faced the wrong way, then no one would know when they got to their floor. These systems that Johnson seems to look down upon bring order to society. Even though people would be looked down upon for acting out rashly, it is a way to keep things balanced. People could start walking on the roads and cars would drive on the sidewalks for one example of how people would not follow the path of least resistance. The social systems that people have created are not always a terrible thing.
What Johnson wrote in “What it all has to do with us” was all relatively new to me. At least his point of view in the discussion, I have never seen before. I did not however enjoy the reading very much. It did not offer much, but seemed to look down on how society runs itself. It all seems to work, even if everyone does choose the easy path.