Racism and Poverty: Barriers to Achieving the American Dream

1084 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: American dream, my dream

The phrase “The American Dream” is an incredible thing. The promise of that dream has convinced hundreds of millions of people that, as a citizen of this country, you can accomplish anything if you work hard enough. Whether you want to be a doctor, athlete, or even a president, those things should all be within your reach, regardless of your class or race! America is the nation where dreams can come true. Unfortunately, for a large number of people that believe this, this is a concept that does not apply to them. Many Americans find opportunities are denied to them because of their race. Others can be found living in poverty and far from anything that would be considered desirable. Statistics show that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans earned 9 percent of all U.S. income in 1979. Did you know that the same 1 percent earns 24 percent of all U.S. income today? That is a staggering example of the income inequality in America. The American Dream is that if you work hard and have the ability you will succeed, but that has become an impossibility for millions of disadvantaged Americans because the income inequality has been steadily increasing since the 1970s and racism and poverty are constant barriers to their success and financial security.

Bell hooks knows about the challenges of race and class, and why some people have a harder time than others in achieving the American Dream. It is normal to feel uncomfortable and awkward arriving at a new school for the first time, but this was something completely different. For bell hooks, walking through the halls with eyes staring at her as if she was an alien, she realized that schooling for her would never be the same. She describes her feelings of inequality a...

... middle of paper ...

...nities’”. After reading and analyzing what hooks and Ehrenreich had to say, I don’t know that I believe that anymore. As individuals and as a country, we have much work to do to provide equal opportunities here and end racism once and for all. The question is, can we do it? I believe we can. Slavery was abolished. Women fought for and received the right to vote. The Civil Rights movement brought about great change in this country and went a long way towards the goal of ending racial discrimination. The idea of the American Dream has been around for over a long time, but it is still, in my opinion, far from reality. People should not be discriminated against because of their race, or forced to live in poverty. I hope to see changes for the better in America, changes which I believe are long overdue. Perhaps then the American Dream will become a reality.

Show More
Related

  • Keeping Close to Home by bell hooks

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because it is very credible, emotionally appealing, and slightly academically based, bell hooks's essay "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education" is an essay that I consider to be very touching. While arguing in her essay that the rich class and the working-class should come to respect and understand each other, bell hooks employs three elements of argument: ethos, pathos, and logos. With her usage of ethos, hooks relates her experience as an undergraduate at Stanford. Providing an experience from a time before she went to Stanford, hooks uses pathos to inspire the audience. However, hooks uses logos by appealing to the readers' logic. These readers are the working-class and the privileged, the audience of her book: "Ain't I a Woman: black women and feminism." Relying mostly on ethos, hooks uses the three elements of argument to express her belief that students should not feel the pressure to replace their values with others' values. Because hooks feels strongly about her belief, she argues that a university should help students maintain the connection with their values, so people of different communities will feel neither inferior nor superior to others but equal.

    Read More

  • Is the American Dream Still Possible?

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American Dream is so important to our country and especially for our generation to take seriously. The American Dream is the opportunity to reach the goals one sets for themselves. It is about having your dream job and life you have always fantasized about. The dream is also about having freedom and equality. The American Dream was much easier to attain a few decades ago compared to today. However, it is still possible. The economy was better fifty years ago than it is today. People are in greater debt now and the United States is in higher debt than it was fifty years ago. The American Dream is still possible despite the lack of improvement within social mobility in American society over the past years. The American dream is achievable by being able to live a middle-class lifestyle and that lifestyle is obtainable through hard work and perseverance, even in light of obstacles such as racism. “The American Dream is still achievable, however, the good news is that people at the bottom are just as likely to move up the income ladder today as they were 50 years ago” (O’Brien 1). The ability to attain the American Dream is hindered by race, the middle class, and giving up facing adversity.

    Read More

  • Racism In The American Dream Essay

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    which is defined as writing that engages the realities of it world- that thinks about human problems including those in the social and political realm” (Foster 10). After careful thinking, Mama decides that her symbol of success is not a liquor store, but a home. Home ownership is a common example of “achievement of the ‘American Dream’” (Viator). Mama takes some of the social security money and buys a home for the family in an all-white suburb, “Clybourne park? Mama, there ain 't no colored people living in Clybourne Park..” (Hansberry 93). Mama’s actions took a social stand that many during the 1950’s took seeking to desegregate education, housing and transportation (Saber). Integration in the 1950’s aimed to end racial exclusion and to

    Read More

  • Where we Stand by Hooks

    595 Words  | 2 Pages

    In our current society, it is acceptable to talk about race or gender. However, when it comes to the subject of class, people tend to tense, and are uncertain as to where they stand. At one time in history money afforded prestige and power, however now, money is a large part of our society and tends to rule many peoples lives. In the book Where We Stand: Class Matters, by bell hooks, she describes a life growing up in a family who had nothing, to now becoming one of America’s most admired writers. She wrote this book because she wanted to write about her journey from a working class world to class-consciousness, and how we are challenged everyday with the widening gap between the rich and the poor. In her book, hook’s describes a life dominated by the haunting issues of money, race, and class.

    Read More

  • Prejudice Destroyed the American Dream

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American dream is the general belief that American Citizens all have an equal opportunity to succeed socially and economically, regardless of any predating circumstances. This idea has been accepted as possible by the majority of citizens in this country. This “dream” cannot be true, as there are multiple discriminations in this country, which make it impossible for everyone to have the same chance to succeed. Biases against racial minorities, women, and citizens from lower social classes are examples of just a few reasons that everyone does not have the same chance to succeed in our current economic and social system in America, resulting in unequal chances to achieve “the American Dream.”

    Read More

  • The Impossible American Dream

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American Dream is known to be a hope for a better, richer, happier life for all citizens of every class. For almost all Americans, this entails earning a college degree, gaining a good job, buying a house, and starting a family. Although this seems wonderful, a large amount of the American population believes that the Dream has changed immensely because of increased prices in today’s society, the price of tuition being highly unaffordable, as well as the unemployment rate skyrocketing and weaker job growth. While some American citizens believe it has changed, others believe that the American Dream has not changed, but point out it is harder to obtain.

    Read More

  • Racism In The American Dream

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    This study will define the problem of racism in the falsity of the American Dream as defined in the writings of Alger, Dalton, Jen, Baldwin, and Cisneros. The notion of equality and fairness in the American Dream has often been defined through the false presumption that hard work will allow the individual the reward of fame and fortune. However, racism against minorities, such as Chinese immigrants, is defined in the Chang family’s struggle to join a local white country club in “In the American Society” by Gish Jen. The Chang endure continual harassment—even though they are wealthy business owners—by white supremacists, such as Jeremy at a country club party:

    Read More

  • The American Dream Brandon King Summary

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    Brandon King in “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” redefines the American dream as something people can strive for. “I believe that the ideas and value of the American dream are still very much live”. People still believe in the American dream, despite recession, economic hardship, and high unemployment. The real sign of success in our society used to be owning expensive items, named cars, and homes and acquiring more material wealth. Today, most people do not strive for a rags-to-rich tradition, and instead prefer a stable, middle class lifestyle, one in which they can focus on saving money for the future and having secure employment. Due to these economy issues, two main approaches mentioned can be mad to fix the economy: minimize the income gap between social classes by raising taxes on the rich, and providing money and incentives to large businesses and wall street to hire more workers and increasing wages, which king agreed with. King also claims that American dreams aren’t necessary about income gap and class system, but rather how each individual can achieve their own American dream if they can. Redefining affects his argument because Robert Reich and Paul Krugman have hope in the American Dream, they argue that since income and wealth primarily focused on the rich, the lower and middle class are not able to effectively progress in the economy and require equal distribution in income.

    Read More

  • How Does Daisy Change In The Great Gatsby

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the past 100 years, the definition of the American Dream has changed in many ways. The American Dream will never have the same exact meaning for any social class. The American Dream isn’t something that comes easy to certain categories of people. The American Dream takes hard work and desire to complete. Many challenges will occur to try to prevent a person's dream from coming a reality. When people achieve their dream however, American's are usually never satisfied with the benefits they do have to enjoy. Most Americans don't even recognize they are living the Dream, because people always want more. Only 40% of the United States population actually believes they are living the American Dream. (Rosenfeld) The American Dream is not the same

    Read More

  • Different Views of the American Dream

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American dream is an ambiguous notion, each person with their own unique opinion based on their current circumstance and past experiences. In my opinion, the American dream is about achieving happiness and contentment through pursuing one's personal fulfillment and validating one's self-worth, where one can achieve their fullest according to their capabilities and be recognized for their accomplishments, disregarding their race, ethnicity, or social status.  The American Dream, although not easily acquired, is achievable through hard work and dedication. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech, “I Have a Dream”, and John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, exemplify their personal views on this ambiguous subject.

    Read More

  • Learning In The Shadow Of Race And Class Analysis

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the essay of “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class”, Hooks illustrates her experiences of racism, oppression, and rejection during her college year due to the huge differences of her race and social class. She was isolated by her roommates at a local college. They trashed her room and would not communicate with her at all. However, she still stayed strong and believed in herself. She started making her way out. Finally, she got into Stanford where the place she thought it would let her get away from those immature whites girls, but it brought more problems. Bells experienced the same stereotype at Stanford that was caused by her race and social class. Hooks said, “Uncertain about whether I had managed to a make it through without giving up the best of myself, the best of values I had been raised to believe in—hard work, honesty, and respect for everyone no matter their class—I finished my education with my allegiance to the working class intact” (294). Since Bell Hooks grew up in a low income family, she was forced to live her life with less opportunities as others do. Under the finical pressures, she has to stop her desires of wanting things that are unable to possess. Even

    Read More

  • Comparing The American Dream And Oppression

    200 Words  | 1 Pages

    Oppression is prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control. Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The American Dream can differ from person to person. To one person their American Dream might be to be able to provide for their kids or have a successful business, but for many it means that everyone has equal opportunities and are treated equal. Freedom, oppression, and the American Dream will always interact with one another.

    Read More

  • Park Avenue: The American Dream

    204 Words  | 1 Pages

    Over the past four decades, income disparity amongst American citizens has skyrocketed. The American Dream - the equal opportunity for prosperity and success, achievable for all citizens through hard work - is crumbling away.

    Read More

  • How To Achieve The American Dream

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    Achieving the American Dream has been the ideal for people living in the United States for decades. People believed that the way to get there was through hard work. The American Dream can vary depending on the person. Some people think that owning a house with a white picket-fence is the American Dream while others think that it is becoming a celebrity with a lot of money but it not just that there’s more to it. Anyone should be able to accomplish the American dream whether Hispanic, African American or Asian.

    Read More

  • The American Dream And Racism In The United States

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American Dream is known to give people opportunity and a chance for a fuller life, filled with equality. The American Dream is what thousands of people have come to America for. But what if the American Dream isn’t all it is cracked up to be? In the United States, we are told if you work hard you will see the benefits and get the rewards you deserve. In some cases that is true, but for people who aren’t white males, that statement falls short.

    Read More

More about Racism and Poverty: Barriers to Achieving the American Dream

Open Document