In this chapter entitled "What Can We Do?, Becoming Part of the Solution," Johnson states that social problems such as racism, discrimination, white privilege, oppression, violence, have prevailed in our society for a long time and that it is time to change the system. Johnson is aware of the fact that it is going to be a difficult task to change the system but that, not doing anything about it, is not going to solve the problems. He says on page 137 "The challenge we face is to change patterns of exclusion, rejection, privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence that are everywhere in this society and have existed for hundreds (or, in the case of gender, thousands) of years." According to Johnson, the issues mentioned above, still exist because millions of people, although aware of them, do not say or do anything about them. He says on page 137 " Their silence and invisibility allow the trouble to continue." For Johnson, to begin the changing process, people need to use explicit language while discussing concerns such as privilege and oppression. People must call things by their names in order to clearly identify the problems and start the healing process. We can read on page 138 "We can't just stop using words like racism, sexism, and privilege, however, because these are tools that focus our awareness on the problem and all the forms it takes. Once we can see and talk about what's going on, we can analyze how it works as a system."
Johnson thinks that privilege has its roots in social systems and not individuals and that being aware of one's privilege, can help solve the problem. He states on p. 139 "Just as privileged groups tend not to be aware of privilege, they also tend not to be aware of how it happens from on moment to the next. Developing that ongoing awareness is a key to becoming part of the solution." Some people know that they are members of the privileged groups but they don't want to think or do anything about it for fear of the outcomes. Indeed, a person belonging to the upper class, and enjoying all the privileges of this class, will have a hard time giving up all the benefits associated with their class. For example, I don't see a professor of university living in a beautiful neighborhood in Newport, RI, abandon his mansion and go live in Central Falls. Unless he or she experiences serious economic problems. One of my acquaintainces used to live in Providence, not to far from Broad Street. From what he once told me, there was a lot of drug dealing, prostitution, and robbing going on in this area, so they built a house in Lincoln, RI and moved. This person works as a manager at a bank in East Providence. He and his family have all they need to lead a decent life: a big and beautiful house, three cars, swimming pool, big yard, etc. Asking these people to give up their privileges and go back to their former apartment in Providence would be an insult to them.
Johson thinks that working to change people is not enough and that systems such as capitalism needs to be changed as well, because it creates different groups of people: the weathy and the poor, in other words, the privileged groups and the oppressed.
One of the solutions to the problems brought up in this chapter by Johnson, is to read books that deal with racism, sexism, sexual orientation; because doing so could help get a clear picture of what is going on in our society, and bring about changes in attitudes towards these issues. In fact, he says on p. 156 "Many people have already done a lot of work that you can learn from. There's no way to get through it all, but you don't have to in order to develop a clear sense of how to act in meaningful and informed ways. A good place to start is a basic text on race, class, and gender (these books increasingly include discussions of sexual orientation;...)
Another solution would be to work with other people who have the same concerns towards those issues. All the solutions Johnson proposes seem good and feasible but it is going to take a long time before change does take place. For, people are not going to change their mentality and attitudes overnight. Indeed, who really wants to give up their privilege? For change to occur, we also need good will. I said it before, with good will, one can move mountains.