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Falseness of the american dream
Falseness of the american dream
Asian American Experience in America
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AMCULT 353 JOURNAL #2 Grace Chan
America has always been a land of hope and possibilities. People coming from around the world has once carried the American Dream settling in America imagining they all would have the equal opportunity to achieve success as well as prosperity through determination and hard work. However, in times of economic crisis and situation where racial relationship was tensed portrayed on films like “Who Killed Vincent Chin” and “Rising Sun”, the ides of American Dream seems to differ among by different individuals and families.
Vincent Chin was a Chinese American man who was a hard worker trying his best to create a better life for himself and his family. He was brought to the US by his adoptive parents.
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When Vincent Chin was murdered, Detroit was undergoing massive and abrupt changes which makes thousands of Americans to loss their jobs. Detroit was once a place where people living in small towns came to settle down, bought houses and lived their American Dream. Yet this dream was short lived and was waken up by the import of Japanese car which is a big competition to the American motor company. Due to the market change that caused economic crisis, many of the factory workers lost their jobs and could no longer live their American Dream. Therefore, they blame the Asian American for causing this and turning their hatred towards them, which resulted in tragic incidents like Vincent Chin’s. In Detriot, mostly the lower class blue collar was angry that Asians caused them to lost their jobs and not being able to attain the American Dream. But in LA, it was that of the middle-class anxiety. Peter Smith in the film Rising Sun has once said that “I had gone out looking for a house, hoping to get for Michelle [his daughter]. But housing prices were just impossible in LA… I was never going to be able to afford one.” Since LA has a lot of Asian immigrants who often brought capital and resources when they came to the U.S. , they could buy houses easily and this increased the price of housing market. Many middle class Americans found it impossible to affordable to buy housing there. Economy at that time was …show more content…
Vincent Chin’s incident marks a historic mark on Asian American history because this provokes Asian American in America to speak up and fight for their rights. This changes the concept of Model Minority Myth because Asians are no longer quiet and obedient but actually they are willing to fight for their rights and authorities. Detroit might have suffered tremendously during the economic crisis but we need to know that there is still hope to renew this city. According to Grace Lee, she saw Detroit as a place and space to begin anew. She meant that she still saw hope and opportunities in Detroit and could change with the goal of creating community. An array of projects was done there hoping to create a more welcoming, understanding and multi-cultural society. Projects like Detroit Summer, Gardening Angels and Earthworks Garden are some hopeful examples that shows the incredible opportunities embedded within Detroit. Detroit Summer is a program that educate students about civil right movements and engage them into community building activities like rehabbing houses and recycling wastes. This has a very positive influence to the community and builds closer relationships in the city. Gardening Angles is a network of mainly African American elders who see vacant lots and started the idea of planting them as community garden for themselves and the communities. Eventually, urban agriculture became popular and led
The first Chinese immigrants to arrive in America came in the early 1800s. Chinese sailors visited New York City in the 1830s (“The Chinese Experience”); others came as servants to Europeans (“Chinese Americans”). However, these immigrants were few in number, and usually didn’t even st...
Many came for gold and job opportunities, believing that their stay would be temporary but it became permanent. The Chinese were originally welcomed to California being thought of as exclaimed by Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific Railroad, “quiet, peaceable, industrious, economical-ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work” (Takaki 181). It did not take long for nativism and white resentment to settle in though. The Chinese, who started as miners, were taxed heavily; and as profits declined, went to work the railroad under dangerous conditions; and then when that was done, work as farm laborers at low wages, open as laundry as it took little capital and little English, to self-employment. Something to note is that the “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon as laundry work was a women’s occupation in China and one of few occupations open to the Chinese (Takaki 185). Chinese immigrants were barred from naturalized citizenship, put under a status of racial inferiority like blacks and Indians as with “Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as threats to white racial purity” (188). Then in 1882, due to economic contraction and racism Chinese were banned from entering the U.S. through the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese were targets of racial attacks, even with the enactment of the 1870 Civil Rights Act meaning equal protection under federal law thanks to Chinese merchants lobbying Congress. Chinese tradition and culture as well as U.S. condition and laws limited the migration of women. Due to all of this, Chinese found strength in ethnic solidarity as through the Chinese Six Companies, which is considered a racial project. Thanks to the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, the Chinese fought the discriminatory laws by claiming citizenship by birth since the fires
The American Dream has always been a driving force in the lives of Americans. It has become a foundation of ideals and hopes for any American or immigrant. Specifically, one of the ideals that always exist is the dream of America free of class distinction. Every American hopes for a society where every person has the opportunity to be whomever he or she desire. Another ideal in the American dream is the drive to improve the quality of life. As one’s idea of the American Dream gets closer and closer, often times political and social ideals of America cause their American Dream to take a turn for the worst.
Gold Rush 1849 was the reason for such a frenzy. It caused people to migrate to California from near and far too dig for gold from the river. According to the film, The Chinese Exclusion Act Explained: US History Review, “This attracted Chinese entrepreneurs to try to make it rich”. The Chinese was one of the cultures that was one of the cultures that left their home to find a better life for their families. However, after being greeted in the United States, they were discriminated against them since they were feared by the Europeans. Racism towards the Chinese immigrant caused a lot of hardship on them in the Western civilization, enabling them to enter or exit without returning to the States.
The American Dream exists in the hearts of all Americans and is a concept that drives many people from all over the world to the borders of a welcoming America. It holds the promises of infinite possibilities in a limited world. Escaping from societies where societies where racism and poverty are often prevalent, immigrants come to America to grasp a part of the infamous American Dream. Nonetheless this dream also exists in the hearts of many Americans already present in America. Perhaps it burns the brightest in the hearts of African Americans, whose past is tainted with execution based on their race. Yet, the American Dream is not applied or only conditionally available for those that seek it the most- minority or immigrant populations. The
One of the most serious incidents of racial violence that has ever occurred in Los Angeles happened in October of 1871. Nineteen Chinese men and boys were murdered in a racial violence by a mob of five hundred locals. This riot was triggered when a fight broke out between two Chinese men over a Chinese girl. A Caucasian man was accidental slayed while caught in the crossfire. This was fueled by the growing movement of anti-Chinese discrimination in California, which would climax in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This would be known as the infamous Chinese Massacre.
In this article, the author writes about the Urban Renewal Plan and what it did to a community in Oakland, California. The West Oakland community was found in 1852 and had a diverse population living there. That article says that upper-class people would be living next door to working class people. After the World Wars that changed because lower income families started moving to the area looking for jobs. The jobs they had were created because of the war. When the war ended these people lost their jobs. At the same time, the Urban Renewal Plan was put into place. This plan set out to remove slums in urban places. This plan would relocated families, demolish houses and create low-income housing. When a family was relocated they received little
... shining, his golden opportunity…the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him…”(qtd.in The American Dream). A person who “manages” to achieve his or her version of the American Dream is often said to be “living the dream”. However this concept has been subjected to great criticism because some people that the social structure of the U.S. prevents such an idealistic goal for everyone. May critics often allude to various examples of inequality rooted in class, race, ethnicity, and religion, which suggests that the American Dream is not attainable to everyone. The principles of the American Dream are too idealistic. Everyone has dreams and goals, but the American Dream is one that is infinite and endless. It is very difficult to live the dream when so much of it is obscured by the government.
The American Dream is the belief that anybody can achieve anything in life. America is known as the country of opportunity regardless of race, gender or nationality. The land of opportunity and equality rights and liberty. The American Dream is to be successful no matter what social class an individual belongs to. The opportunity for upward mobility through hard work leads to a successful life. Individuals in society often strive to obtain many resources that are important. The structure of the economy is typically related to education, occupation, housing, and health care which are not distributed equally to enable an individual to achieve equal opportunity some will have to go through hardship in order to obtain it. The lack of social mobility makes the
...dice that the Chinese encountered as immigrants in America. Although the Chinese resented the fact that they were being discriminated against, they continued to immigrate because they felt that their opportunities in the United States of America were still better than in China. Together they endured poor treatment because they knew they had nothing if they went back home to China. The Chinese resisted such horrible conditions by sticking together as a community and establishing their own businesses and towns such as Chinatown, in San Francisco. After studying the Chinese we can draw the conclusion that many Chinese made the journey to America in search for freedom and for a better life, but instead were detained and treated poorly. Together the Chinese community made their voice heard by challenging laws, starting their own businesses, and becoming self-sufficient.
For instance, the Asian American population has, on average, the highest level of education and the highest income among all races. Due to this, the racial discrimination this group had to endure throughout history is overlooked. Nevertheless, the manifestation of this inequality can be observed by the Asian communities still present in the United States, such as Chinatown in San Francisco. These communities appeared after white people brutally attacked and killed Asians because they felt the Asians were stealing their jobs and lowering their wages, driving Asians out of cities and forcing them to rely on each other and their own businesses for survival (Croteau & Hoynes, 2013). In addition, since Asians were not considered qualified for American citizenship throughout most of history, they are often still considered foreigners today. Another example of inequality today can be seen through real estate and the wealth gap between whites and minority groups. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 ended the discrimination against non-whites in the housing industry, but racial inequality still remains. When white neighborhoods began to integrate non-whites, white people sold their homes after their realtors instilled the fear of their homes decreasing in value. Realtors bought white homes for less than they were worth, and sold them to non-whites at inflated rates, a process known as “block-busting”.
Everything changed in August 1963. America was mesmerized with the famous speech “I Have a Dream” delivered by Martin Luther King. People from all over the nation gathered for one single motive, social justice, and with that citizens of the United States yearned hope for a better tomorrow; a tomorrow in which they could see a breaking dawn to a day full up roaring opportunities for everyone disregarding their ethnic background, gender, sexual preference, or economic standing. This soon led to what is now known as “The American Dream.” America’s reputation for being the land of endless possibilities has captured both foreign attention as well as native patriotism. Success here in America is defined as having a good social position and a plethora of
Gentrification is a highly important topic that has not only been occurring all over the United States, but especially closer than we may have thought. San Francisco is home to hundreds of thousands of people who have been a part of how amazing this city has become. San Francisco is one of the most visited places in the world with many of its famous landmarks, endless opportunities not only for daytime fun but also has an amazing nightlife that people cannot get enough of. People come for a great time and could not be done without the help of the people who have grown up to experience and love this city for what it truly is. The cost of living in such an important city has definitely had its affect of lower income San Francisco residents. For decades we have seen changes occurring in parts of San Francisco where minorities live. We have seen this in Chinatown, SOMA, Fillmore district, and especially the Mission district.
The American Dream can obliterate any prospect of satisfaction and does not show its own unfeasibility. The American dream is combine and intensely implanted in every structure of American life. During the previous years, a very significant number of immigrants had crossed the frontier of the United States of America to hunt the most useful thing in life, the dream, which every American human being thinks about the American dream. Many of those immigrants sacrificed their employments, their associations and connections, their educational levels, and their languages at their homelands to start their new life in America and prosper in reaching their dream.
Although, Capitalism brought change to the city of Los Angeles, it also created racial apprehension. As described by Sanchez, “deportation and repatriation campaigns pushed almost one-third of the Mexican community back to Mexico…. Increasingly, changing demographics and limited economic resources stunted the growth of the ethnic market, reflecting the changing composition and nature of...