DEJ #1 "Americanah"

"The course of racism is so complex//Lots of folks dont mind a black nanny or black limo driver. But they...mind a black bloss." (Americanah. 43.5)

This quote highlights the fact that people of a white ethnic background, in this book, have a general "set" understanding of what all black men and women should look like and what status they should hold in life. It also conveys that people of color are only seen to work below others and for others, and that any sign of power means that something is wrong. This really puts people of color and the white man at a racial divide. As a result, we can acknowledge that racial divides are caused due to peoples ingrained outlook on one another.

"Americanah" Post 1

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Race

The critical lens theory of race/racism revolves around the idea that race plays a key role in which a person or "group/race" of people have in a society or culture due to their ethnic background. This idea ties into three main ideas of law, power, and levels of race. However, when analyzing the critical lens theory of race, some may ask "is white supremacy and racial power maintained over time?" and "does the law have a role in the functioning basis of race?" 

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American Dream Essay

Symantha Clarke

AP Language

Ms.Brannon

7 March 2017

The American Dream: A Reality or an Illusion?

At the beginning of the Great Depression, James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” Today, the new American Dream has encompassed a variety of different ideals and values as newer generations have transformed the Dream into something of their own. Many argue that the American Dream is an illusion for minorities, however, ultimately the American Dream is a vision that can be accomplished by people of all races.

Some may say that the American Dream is an illusion that cannot be achieved particularly when it comes to race. According to an article from the Washington Post, a graph created by Georgetown revealed that whites were more likely to attend top colleges and universities in comparison to their minority counterparts who seem to cluster in open access two- and four-year colleges.  The article went on to say that based on the graph, “higher education is doing more to replicate inequality than to eliminate it.” While this may be true, success in higher education for minorities overall has increased drastically. In 2015, the percentage of African-Americans 25 and over who had gained a bachelor’s or higher rose to 20.2 after it being 19.7% in 2014. This reveals that the American Dream is attainable because African-Americans have been able to receive an education and have to the opportunity to gain degrees without the color of their skin completely excluding them from being able to do so. At one point there was no hope for minorities ever being able to get a higher education. However, now they are living this dream now more than ever.

There is also the claim that the American Dream cannot be achieved by minorities because of the gaps between socioeconomic statuses.  According to statistics the median household income for Blacks was 36,544 in comparison to the nation’s 55,775 in 2015. This may be valid, however, this does not inhibit African-Americans from achieving the American Dream. A poll done by CNN showed that 55 percent of Black and 52 percent of Hispanics believe that the American Dream is easier for them to achieve than it was for the parents. This can most likely be associated with the significant increase of opportunities for minorities that are available now and which may not have been for the previous generation. Along with the poll CNN talked about the stories of several minorities who have felt they have achieved the American Dream. 22- year old Breionne Carter lives in a suburb of Austin, Texas and attends a community college. With her dream of becoming an entrepreneur feels that she faces less discrimination because of her race and has more opportunities to chose from. “The world is changing”, she says. “I have the opportunity to do things [my mother] couldn't do." This shows that the American Dream is achievable for minorities in relation to Adams’ definition because they have accessible opportunities available to them based on achievement and their ability--not only because of the color of their skin.

Finally, another claim that argues that the American Dream is unattainable for minorities is because they are unable to get into better jobs like those of their white counterparts. However, Iman Worsham is living proof that minorities can achieve better jobs in the workfield. For her, living in Birmingham, Alabama is much easier than it was for her elders. Just as Breionne Carter stated, she feels as though there is less discrimination and more programs to help minorities like herself. She has a master’s in health services administration, is a case manager for the company Humana and is also studying to be a nurse. Through this, Worsham represents the American Dream for minorities who may feel as though there is not enough representation and shows that it can be achieved by all races.

Overall, the American Dream cannot possibly be an illusion for minorities when so many of them aspire to it and might have already made it reality. Instead, it is a source of motivation for them to do better and achieve more than their predecessors.

American Dream Essay

Vanessa Victorio

Ms.Brannon

AP Language and Composition

11 March 2017

The Reality of the American Dream

The American Dream is a unique aspiration that is offered to everyone that resides in the U.S. First coined by James Truslow Adams in The Epic of America, he defined the dream as a life that “should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” In other words, because everyone is an individual and different, they should achieve a life where they are wealthier and fuller according to their standards. For majority of people today, it is a dream where people are able to achieve prosperity and success through hard work and effort. Some may say that the American Dream is available to whomever wants to pursue it, however, due to racial, income, and gender inequality, the American Dream is only an illusion for many people.

While Adams defined the American Dream during the 1930s, today there are many who believe that it is still alive and attainable. In Tim Roemer’s America Remains the World’s Beacon of Success, Roemer explains and provides evidence of why America is wonderful and is ideal for people that want to succeed. He mentions that the U.S remains to be the “beacon of success” when it comes to higher education, for its universities are ranked as one of the best schools of the world (Roemer 619). In addition, when he visited India, students who lived there told Roemer that they wanted to study in America to achieve the American Dream. The U.S is highly praised for its academic achievements and while this may be the case, Roemer fails to realize that not everyone is able to obtain those opportunities. The Pew Research Team, a non-biased fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping America and the world, wrote an excerpt called King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal; Many American See Racial Disparities, that concluded from its analysis that the economic gulf between blacks and whites that was “present half a century ago largely remains.” In addition, there were charts on Median Household Income and Wealth that displayed how the gaps have widened, with whites increasing and blacks decreasing. It is implied from this evidence that blacks face more difficulties obtaining the American Dream as opposed to whites, making it harder for blacks to achieve the American Dream. Thus, the American Dream is an illusion since blacks have to work harder because of their color, for a dream that is said to be attainable for “everyone."

Another reason to why the American Dream is unattainable is because the income inequality between the bottom 90% and the top 0.1% is widening as the years continue. The gap between the rich and everyone else, has been growing significantly, which implies that the American Dream is becoming harder to accomplish for majority of the nation. Data researchers Marc Priester and Aaron Mendelson provide graphs on the amount of money those in the bottom and the top receive. For instance, for the U.S Average Income as of 2014, the bottom 90% receive 184 times less income than the top 0.1%. In addition, in a bar graph that displays the U.S Real Weekly Wages from 1979-2014, the bottom 10% have seen little to no growth in their real weekly wages, as opposed to the top 10% which has increased by about $476. Money can make a significant difference between obtaining a house and barely being able to rent an apartment, so for majority of the nation to not have a well income, it prevents them from achieving the American Dream. Everyone is supposed to be given the same chance and opportunity to achieve the dream, except they are not.

The final reason to why the American Dream is unachievable is because women are also not able to accomplish or reach it. For generations, women have been fighting for equal rights, especially when it comes to equal pay. In an article written by CNN, studies show that typically, women are paid 79% of what men are paid. Not only that, but factors such as where you live, your age, ethnicity, race, and education level can also affect your pay. For instance, while women in general get paid 79% of what men are paid, hispanic women specifically are paid 54% of what white men are paid - which is almost half percent. CNN explains that if it continues at this rate, women won't be able to earn equal pay until 2059, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. A nation cannot progress if people are being hindered from what they want to achieve because if women are not able to obtain a rightful pay, this only prevents them from achieving the American Dream at an even greater cost. The American Dream is said to be for all, but it is false if so many factors in today's society are preventing that.

Everyone wants to achieve the American Dream and while it sounds ideal, people who wish to achieve it, fail to view the realities behind it. Certain people are being hindered from it simply because of who they are and the situation they are in. It is unfair if the dream is only applied to one specific group of people. If it is aimed towards one group, why is it called the American Dream? Shouldn’t it include the people who make up America?

Works Cited:

• Adams, James Truslow. "Epilogue." The Epic of America: Illustr. by M.J. Gallagher. New York: Blue Ribbon, 1941. N. pag. Print.
• Roemer, Tim. "America Remains the World's Beacon of Success." The Washington Post. WP Company, 19 Jan. 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.
• Caumont, Andrea. "King’s Dream Remains Elusive Goal." Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project. N.p., 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.

• Priester, Marc, and Aaron Mendelson. "Income Inequality." Inequality.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.

• Ford, Dana. "When, Where and Why Women Earn Less than Men." CNN. Cable News Network, 12 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.

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Firdaws Roufai

APLC

American Dream Essay

The American Dream is the ideal that every U.S citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. It is nearly impossible to achieve this in America if you are part of a marginalized community. Due to racist policies in the criminal justice, education, and housing systems, it is much harder for people of color to achieve the American Dream. Black children go to increasingly segregated schools, experience significantly less mobility than whites and are far more likely to be incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. The American Dream has always been defined by upward mobility, but for black Americans, it’s harder to get into the middle class, and a middle-class lifestyle is more precarious.

The American Dream according to James Truslow Adams, “In the Epic of America” is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”. However, how can this be the case if America does not allow people of color to reach their full opportunity. According to Sean McElwee, Policy Analyst at Demos, “Black children go to increasingly segregated schools, experience significantly less mobility than whites and are far more likely to be incarcerated for nonviolent crimes”. The School to Prison Pipeline is a system in which students who are forced out of school for disruptive behavior are usually sent back to the origin of their angst and unhappiness, their home environments or their neighborhoods, which are filled with negative influences. According to PBS, a black child is 3.5 times more likely to be suspended than whites, and of students involved in “in-school arrests, 70% are black or Latino. This illustrates the systemic racist institutions people of color are placed in that deter them from reaching their full potential. For black and latino children who are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems, the American Dream does not exist.

Since people are products of their environment, housing segregation inhibits people from achieving the American Dream because often times those in destitute living conditions come from marginalized communities. In order to access this, one needs shelter, food, jobs, healthcare, and an education. Not everyone is given the same opportunities to gain these things, and those that do have higher chances at succeeding. In NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) housing,  46% identify as black and 44% identify as Hispanic, whereas in the Upper East Side, 89.3% identify as white. NYCHA living conditions are often unsanitary and according to The Guardian “A cold home is bad for your health and increases the risks of cardiovascular, respiratory and rheumatoid diseases as well as the worsening mental health.” And since people of color live in these conditions, they are subjected to perform worse academically due to their substandard health.

Lack of integration in public schools deteriorate the American Dream.  Schools in these neighborhoods have students that are predominantly, if not completely people of color, and those schools lack proper funding. Today, many black children still attend schools in racially and economically isolated neighborhoods, while their families still reside in lonely islands of poverty: 39 percent of black children are from families with incomes below the poverty line, compared with 12 percent of white children, according the U.S. Census Bureau,  28 percent of black children live in high-poverty neighborhoods, compared with 4 percent of white children. Children coming to school in poor health or with unstable housing are absent more frequently and cannot benefit from good instruction. Children who walk or ride to school through violent neighborhoods, or who return to these neighborhoods after school, are stressed and less able to focus on studies. Children with more frequently unemployed parents suffer from insecurity that affects learning. These children cannot reasonably be expected to achieve on average like children without these disadvantages, no matter how high quality their instruction. Equality requires that the cycle of low achievement leading to poverty and poverty leading to low achievement be interrupted. Graduates of both races need cultural literacy to compete in middle-class society and the workforce. It is not that the American Dream does not exist for marginalized people, it is simply that it can not, because of racist policies in the criminal justice, education, and housing systems.

American Dream Essay

It can be agreed that America has changed socially, politically, and economically since the 1930s. During that time of the great depression, many Americans found hope in the American Dream— the idea of a richer and fuller life anyone can achieve. While many believe the American Dream is still attainable given the ample opportunities this country provides, the dream ultimately proves to be unattainable for many Americans of lower class.

The perception of the American Dream has changed and the new values are far-fetched. Now people associate the dream with earning a lot of money, the house on the hill with the white picket fence and the two car garage. But when James Truslow Adams coined the term in 1931, its main focus was not wealth but, “opportunities for each according to ability and achievement.” Americans work longer hours than they did thirty years ago (Thompson 2017). And many do it in hopes that they can essentially buy a better life, and pass down a better one to their children, but in a sense this thinking is only diluting the true meaning of the American dream for each generation. This shift to materialism has only led Americans to accumulate debt. Several middle class families get credit cards and discount brokerage house, because there is a “willingness to take on debt” in order to achieve the new perception of this dream (Kamp).

The American Dream is a set of ideals that promote success and social mobility through hard work, but there are several families that despite their hard work have yet to see achievement. The United States has a poverty rate of 13.5%, which is equivalent to 43.1 million people in need (2015 Census). And many of those people will stay in that percentile because there are not enough means to prosper. Barbara Ehrenreich, a writer for the Atlantic, describes the jobs available for many of the lower class as a “trap”. The pay is so little that one cannot accumulate even a couple of hundred dollars to help make the transition to a better-paying job. Often there is no control over work schedules, making it impossible to arrange for child care or take a second job. And in many of these jobs, even young women soon begin to experience the physical deterioration—especially knee and back problems—that can bring a painful end to their work life (Ehrenreich 2014). People argue that the key to overcoming poverty is educations, but schools are a reflection of the community and if the community is underperforming then chances are so will the school. Post secondary education is even more farfetched for some individuals, with tuition rates increasing steadily and wage increases are not keeping up with the same inflation rates.

The American Dream Adams envisioned no longer fits the lifestyle of America today. Instead the dream has transformed and not for the better. It may still be attainable for the predominant class in America but majority of the population struggle to reach the high expectations set. Although the dream encourages people to strive for the best, it prioritizes the wrong values and leaves many of the lower class doubting if the dream was ever real.