My name is Liliia Riabenko and I am really into American culture.
Personally I am fond of American movies, serials and cartoons. Today I want to share my thoughts about the question of multiculturality and the American dream in American animated sitcom “The Cleveland Show”. Everybody who is familiar with the USA and American culture in general should know that many ethnic groups live within the country.
The Cleveland show is a sitcom that depicts the life of African-American people in America in a funny way. Nevertheless, as with most satire, it sometimes hits on very salient issues within society. I want to highlight a recent episode, entitled The Men In Me, where Cleveland develops a newfound obsession with Justin Bieber, and after dressing up as a preteen in order to win tickets for a concert, he inadvertently gets voted as the “…whitest Black man…” in America. This launches him into an interesting quest for identity, forcing him to try to overcompensate for his Blackness through a caricaturized 90s get-up, to then discovering that he was actually raised by a wealthy white woman for a time period. With the help of his white surrogate mother he of course realizes that he should find value in his individual identity, though she humorously reminds him “…oh, and you’re Black.” For me, this episode touches on a tension that admittedly might not be of concern for most Black people in the country. Namely, this question of “Black” identity, and how we are to delineate identities as Black people. This idea that being Black has changed over a generation, due to expanded social, political, and economic experiences for Black people. Saying the identity “Black,” could mean an African or Caribbean, it could involve Black people who are of mixed race, and there are even Latinos that “look” Black. The second ethnic group which appears in The Cleveland show is Latino/as. They are depicted as hard-working people who introduce to everybody their culture and cuisine. People are wearing their national clothing, selling traditional food – tacos, and highlighting their cultural differences. However, the main character, Cleveland Brown, does not differ himself from native Americans. Cleveland notes that while Choni (a Latino woman) claims to be Mexican, she has a Puerto Rican accent, which Choni claims she got from attending college in Puerto Rico, although she failed to get …show more content…
No Bueno!
Choni: So now you're starting to see things our way
Cecilia: We're more than just chips and guacamole
Cleveland: I've learned a lot and I'm happy to say...
I Love L-A...T-I-N-O-S!
A lot of people following the American dream immigrate to US and try to make all of their dreams come true. As we can see, the characters in The Cleveland Show believe that they already “truly embody the American dream”. To them, the American Dream means having a good financial situation in the family. As we can see the Mexican people have their own Mexican restaurant, and they live without financial problems, with nice jobs, in luxurious house. They are free, happy people who by working hard reached all of their goals. They embody the American dream are happy to live in the US. Of course we understand that it is just animated cartoon, a fantasy, but it may be a good example for people who have similar ideas to be successful and reach their own American