week 3 blog post Kozol

 Connections: when connecting ‘Amazing Grace' to Johnson, you can see the connection in the ignoring of privilege and connection of privilege relating to the lack of privilege.  In the article by Kozol you see how the welfare and health system pays no attention to people with a lack of privilege.  The article references the idea of how ‘people are poor by choice’, showing how false this is by showing real life examples of people with no choices because of where they live, their race, and their economic status.  This part of Brooklyn is shown as a place that is ignored by those with any power or privilege to change the living situation.

When connecting ‘Amazing Grace’ to Delpit I thought of the culture of power and how when the rules aren’t stated by those in power, it makes change impossible.  In Amazing Grace this is shown in examples where people aren’t able to access government aid or social security, and the rules and steps are changed to make the process even more difficult.  The people with power put these systems in place to claim there are ways to get financial help, however don’t check to see if they are actually accessible because they don’t have any personal stake in it or urgency.

Week 2 response post - Delpit (Ben L blog)

 Argument: Delpit argues that there is a culture of power, with unspoken rules in place that is seen by those who don’t have power while being unseen/ignored by those who do have power.  Those in the culture of power make the rules, and should teach those rules to those not in power for two reasons.  One is to increase the ability to communicate between different culture groups, and two is so those not in power can understand the “rules” and increase effectiveness in that culture.  The problem is that those who realize this don’t have the power and can’t make this change, while those who do have the power don’t recognize it so they don’t feel the need to explain the rules.  This is explained in the example of a school setting, where the teachers with the power (the cultural majority) feel they know the best way to teach all kids regardless of culture/background, and don’t listen to input from those with less power (the cultural minority).  

Delpit highlights how this culture of power would affect students in school.  Teachers who are in the culture of power teach children based on as if they were all from the culture of power.  Doing this leaves behind those students who aren’t from this culture, and don’t have the same advantages and skills learned at home.  Delpit believes that schools need to start teaching these skills to make sure everyone is on an even playing field, or at least more even than what it would be otherwise.

Ben L blog post week 1

 Throughout the article the author stresses how privilege is connected, meaning that the privilege someone has in return means someone else has a lack of that privilege.  “This means that privilege is always a problem for people who don’t have it and for people who do, because privilege is always in relation to others” (Johnson 10).  The author’s goal of mentioning this concept is to increase accountability in everyone, and to get away from the notion that this issue doesn’t affect me personally.   Acknowledging privilege can have a real impact, for example a company hiring more women and people of color to positions of power which can help lower some of the consequences of lack of privilege.

Another concept discussed is how privilege is ignored and avoided because it is considered “uncomfortable” to talk about .  “Ignoring privilege keeps us in a state of unreality, by promoting the illusion that difference by itself is the problem”.  When privilege is not talked about it only makes the issue build on itself by making it seem like less of an issue, and creating a further divide by members of different groups.  When I am a teacher I believe it will be important to address how everyone has individual differences, and learn each student as an individual and understand their backgrounds to factor into how I educate them. 

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