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HDF 110 Book Project

Private Love Public School: Gay Teacher Under Fire`

Privilege, Power, and Difference by Johnson are breakthrough tools for students and non-

students to study the privilege and difference system in our society. The third edition is written in

the form of easy-to-access dialogues, linking theory with fascinating examples, allowing readers

to see the inherent nature and consequences of privilege and its relationship to privilege (John-

son, 2018). This extraordinary book has been used in classrooms and outside of the country.

1. Discuss three specific examples of LGBTQ + prejudice or discrimination from the story

that stood out to you the most in the story and WHY these.

To begin with, sexual orientation and gender identities are terms and meanings that are

constantly changing. Several words once used to identify homosexual, bisexual, and transgender

individuals are now deemed outdated and even abusive, especially in the field of psychological

health. The words "lesbian" and "homosexual" now refer to individuals who are attracted to peo-

ple of the same sex, while "bisexual" refers to people who have attractive members of both

sexes. It should be remembered that, though these categories are still commonly used, sexual ori-

entation does not necessarily fall into one of them, but rather exists on a continuum. Physical and

psychological violence, intimidation, persecution, and economic isolation are all common types

of bigotry, stigma, and social exclusion experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender

individuals.

• “Just Let Us Be”. Discrimination Against LGBTQ Students in the Philippines: They

are handled unfavorably by their classmates and instructors, which, combined with re-

strictive policies, stigmatizes and disadvantages LGBTQ students, and the school lacks

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awareness and resources on LGBTQ problems. The school should be a secure environ-

ment for all students. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in the

Philippines, on the other hand, frequently find themselves harassed, discriminated

against, and unable to access LGBT-related information, in some instances sexually or

physically. For instance, the CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) re-

jects the application of the Anti-Discrimination Convention and aims to weaken anti-dis-

crimination legislation currently before Congress (Einna, 2018). Providing educational

tools to students, teachers, and staff to familiarize them with LGBT people and concerns

is one-way schools can combat bullying and prejudice and increase its effect. Sadly, in

high schools in the Philippines, there is very little positive awareness and support on sex-

ual orientation and gender identity.

• Sexual orientation and gender identity: There have been several controversies and dis-

cussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in the history of psychopathology.

Both are also embodied in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual” and the “International

Classification of Diseases,” as well as the recent subtle assault on lesbian, gay, bisexual,

and transgender people's mental health (Einna, 2018). It claims that in the history of psy-

chopathology, sexual orientation and gender identity have been perceived as falling be-

tween two poles: gender transgression and gender variance/fluidity.

• LGBTQ Sexual orientation: It is about the people you attract and who you want to have

a relationship with. Sexual orientation is about who you are drawn to and who you are

attracted to in terms of romance, emotion, and sex. This is different from gender identity.

Gender identity has nothing to do with the person you attract, but with you being a male,

female, homosexual, etc. (Einna, 2018). Although sexual orientation conceptually covers

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all sexual orientations, research on sexual orientation in American psychology usually fo-

cuses on individuals with homosexual, bisexual, and bisexual (LGBTQ) sexual orienta-

tions. Traditionally, heterosexuality is regarded as normative. Therefore, it is not the ob-

ject of research, nor is it the focus of various problems that LGBTQ sexual orientation is

to solve.

2. Discuss how the following two systems we have discussed in class contributed to the

problem/issues/experiences discussed in the book.

a. Exosystem- (policies, laws, forms of media and information)

The quickly evolving distribution characteristics of social diseases (like health in-

equality) are determining factors of (a) born outside the human body, and (b) demonstrate

different levels and include different Spatio-temporal ranges, such as relatively speaking,

macro energy level phenomena are more probably to drive and constrain micro-energy

level phenomenon; likewise; to some extent, genes are linked to micro-energy level oc-

currences (Eriksson et al., 2018). Furthermore, those with the most authority and wealth

make up a small percentage of the population in societies where social stratification is fo-

cused on assets and status. The larger the utter burden, the more typical health conse-

quences are. Since individuals make up the bulk of the population, they are a burden. A

corollary is that for more rare or infrequent (nonendemic) illnesses, it is impossible to

predict whether or not social differences in outcome occur, and if so, which way the gra-

dient will run (Eriksson et al., 2018).

b. Macrosystem- (broad ideological and cultural aspects of society)

A selection of values, attitudes, language, and entire lifestyles of a particular time

or group of people is referred to as the cultural aspect. Since the contrast between one

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culture and the second culture is not always the manner it varies from the third culture,

we must always evaluate cultural differences in the context of comparing two separate

cultures. It is beneficial to have a strong sense of pride in one's own culture; for instance,

a common sense of group pride brings people together in society. However, ethnocen-

trism may breed contempt for other cultures, as well as confusion and dispute (Eriksson

et al., 2018). Besides that, People with high ambitions sometimes go to society to "help"

its people because they think they are uneducated or lagging mean. Comparing one cul-

ture to another will reveal obvious differences. But all cultures also have common ele-

ments. The cultural commonality is a pattern or characteristic shared by all societies on a

global scale. The family unit is an example of cultural universality: every human society

recognizes the family structure of regulating sexual reproduction and caring for children.

Even so, the way the family unit is defined, and its function are different (Eriksson et al.,

2018).

3. Discuss examples from the book that illustrate two different forms of power (based on

French and Raven’s Six Bases of Power-notes found on Bb).

The examples are discussed below (Johnson, 2018):

• Legitimate Power: As an example, Legal authority is held by the president, prime

minister, or monarch. Chief executives, religious ministers, and fire chiefs are all in

the same boat. If you lose your designation, your legal authority can be revoked al-

most automatically, so individuals will be influenced by the designation you hold in-

stead of by you. Your authority is often restricted to circumstances that others assume

you have the right to govern. Individuals will listen if a fire chief advises them to stay

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away from a burning house, for instance. If he attempts to teach two people to be

more polite to one another, they will most certainly ignore him.

• Reward Power: People in positions of authority are often able to bestow incentives.

Raises, promotions, lucrative tasks, educational opportunities, and basic compliments

are all indications of incentives that are governed by those in positions of power. Oth-

ers are more likely to do what you want if they believe you can praise them for it. The

problem with this feature's fundamentals is that they might not be as solid as they

seem at first. Supervisors rarely have complete control over pay increases, managers

rarely have complete control over promotions, and even CEOs need board approval to

perform such measures. Your strength dwindles as your perceived worth decreases.

4. Discuss your personal insights from the story and its contribution to your understand-

ing of social inequality along with some suggestions for how this problem might be ad-

dressed.

The term “social inequality” relates to the social interaction mechanism that has the im-

pact of restricting or harming the social status of individuals, communities, social classes, and

social circles. A class is a community of people with similar wealth, income, education, and oc-

cupations. The school system, unlike the class system, is open. Individuals have the freedom to

pursue a different level of education or work than their parents. They can also socialize with and

marry other members of their class, allowing them to switch from one to another (United Na-

tions, 2021). Besides, this problem can be addressed through engaging in diversity and difference

in practice. It begins with a quick introduction of the ways within which social service values

and ethics uniquely support diversity in practice and follows by a review of the conceptual

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framework for diversity and bias in welfare work practice. This then reviews standards for cul-

tural competence, the importance of empathy and humility, and also the various ways in which

individuals and groups are oppressed by the bulk culture (United Nations, 2021). It defines im-

portant concepts that play a job in engaging diversity in practice in culturally competent and cul-

turally humble ways and explores diversity, intersectionality, bias, culture, competence, and cul-

turally competent practice (United Nations, 2021). Moreover, recognize how the institutions and

values of a society can dominate, marginalize, alienate, or establish or improve privilege and

power (Johnson, 2018):

• Gain enough self-awareness to collaborate with diverse communities without being

influenced by personal perceptions and beliefs.

• Recognize and express the value of diversity in influencing life experiences.

• Consider themselves to be teachers and communicate with others as informants.

5. Write one discussion question based on the book that involves one of our class concepts

and briefly answer it.

Question: How privileges work to oppress the ruled people and benefit the beneficiaries.

Answer: Johnson (writer) believes that privilege is an overall system that includes op-

pression and welfare based on many different factors: race, gender, gender, class, education, reli-

gion, etc. These different forces work together to form a matrix of rule and privilege. He re-

vealed some paradoxes in privileges. He also studied the reasons why privileged people did not

make enough effort to challenge the privilege system, while at the same time formulating strate-

gies for members of the main categories to fight against domination and privileged forces.

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Works Cited

Johnson, A. G. (2018). Privilege, power, and difference. McGraw-Hill Education.

Einna, A. (2018, March 9). Discrimination. https://genderequality990468023.wordpress.com/.

Eriksson, M., Ghazinour, M., & Hammarström , A. (2018). Different uses of Bronfenbrenner’s

ecological theory in public mental health research: what is their value for guiding public

mental health policy and practice? Social Theory & Health, 16, 414–433.

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-018-0065-6

United Nations. (2021). Inequality Must Be Addressed through Social Protection Policies,

Speakers Stress, as Commission for Social Development Opens 2019 Session | Meetings

Coverage and Press Releases. United Nations.

https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/soc4873.doc.htm.

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