privilege provides a sense of comfort and security for my future. I know that later in life, I will be able to marry the man whom I love and that we will be able to have a happy life together, free from the judgment and criticism of others. In addition, having the right to marry “confers basic rights such as spousal health benefits, the ability to adopt children, inheritance, joint
filing of income tax returns, and the power to make decisions for a spouse who is incapacitated in a medical emergency” (Johnson, p. 29).
As a member of the upper middle class, I experience a social class privilege. Because my parents have some saved wealth and have steady incomes, my family and I enjoy a sense of financial security. We do not have to worry about being able to afford the essential necessities of life, such as food, water, shelter, and clothing. My social class privilege allows me to afford some luxury goods, as well, that those without a social class privilege would not be able to afford. These luxury goods include a laptop, a cell phone, purses, and jewelry.
An individual-level understanding of power and privilege can never be fully complete. Privilege “is rooted in societies and groups” (Johnson, p. 35). Privilege is not based on individual people. Rather, it is given by society to specific groups of people who share some common trait. Because of this, the individuals receiving privilege cannot control the privilege and may not even be fully aware of the privilege they have been given. Many people who are privileged are unaware of the privilege they have because they compare themselves to a “reference group” that shares common traits. For example, “whites tend to compare themselves with whites, not with people of color…what this means, however, is that whites tend
not to feel privileged by their race when they compare themselves to their reference group, because their reference
group is also white” (Johnson, p. 36). Similarly, power cannot be understood on an individual basis. Power stems from the structure of society, which is the product of the relationships between individuals and the social system. Therefore, an individual cannot understand power by looking at his situation alone. Johnson compares power and social life to a game of Monopoly. Johnson observed himself acting greedily and assuming power whenever he played Monopoly. Because he generally is not a greedy individual, he concluded that his behavior was a result of his choices and his social situation (Johnson, p. 83). As a result, his behavior and power could not be fully understood without the context of the entire social system.