Political science; Multicultural Nature;The book Privilage, Power, and Difference and the movieCrash - Essay Example

However they can also be part of the solution as man has the potential to solve these problems. The central theme of the book can be summed up by this sentence in his book: "The trouble that surrounds difference is really about privilege and power - the existence of privilege and the lopsided distribution of power that keeps it going."(Allan Johnson 2001) According to Johnson all individuals confront issues of difference and privilege often causing fear and discomfort in people. Johnson also believes that differences in class have tremendous effect on peoples lives.

But class is different from gender or race or ethnicity or sexual orientation. He believes that people have the potential to change the class to which they belong but the other differences are difficult to change because they are associated with birth. People are generally classified on the basis of their physical attributes and appearances. Class differences are a result of capitalism. The cause of modern racism is primarily economic. Racism is a problem that affects all white people. Only the degree varies depending on their social class.

The advantage of being white is likely to be more significant for the lower working-class than for whites belonging to the middle and upper classes. Social issues are prevalent because of the existence of privilege and misuse of power by people. Privilege creates inequality. People of all groups must work together to change this inequality. People dont want to discuss words such as "privilege," "racism," and "oppression." According to Johnson these words must be discussed openly and a collective effort must be made to resolve these issues.

All feelings of blame, guilt, shame should be set aside and our focus must be on the dire need to change. In the movie Crash the director Haggis weaves several stories around incidents that happen during two days in Los Angeles. The stories revolve around a group of strangers who clash