Racism In The American Dream

Improved Essays
The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states: "The American Dream 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...”Today, many people immigrate to the United States of America in search of the American Dream; freedom, equality, and the opportunity to achieve their personal goals in life that they could not otherwise achieve in their homeland. The American Dream is different for every individual but it’s a reality, every person that is a citizen of the United States has the opportunity to achieve no matter what prejudices they may face, depending on their perseverance …show more content…
Many people will come out fighting and bruised because of the long batter against racism that people who are not White will face. In President Obama, “A More Perfect Union” he speaks about racism and equality very much. Understanding that racism is a big issue in today’s society. Obama addresses that “The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaces over the last few weeks reflects the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never worked through...” (Para 23). This shows that racism is still going on today. The racism that minorities receive is starting to spiral out of control. People are dying at the hands of White people who have so much hatred towards a group of people who they only want to live with. Coming into a new country with a little to nothing, is going to be a big wake up call. Many people here are treated based on their social class, and if you’re a minority, you are treated like almost nothing. The American Dream is deeper than the white picket fence, the lovely gold retriever dog and the little house on the corner. Racism in America is deadly, and if you’re not White, it may become a struggle for you, like it has been for …show more content…
The woman may consider shopping for her family, buying lavish gifts and getting started right off the back, which may not be the case. The American Dream in a man eyes is to be able to provide for his family, be a very successful person with a lot of money. Many people move to America in pursuit of being able to get more of his family here for this free life. Finding work in here in the States might be an immense challenge that the family may go through, struggling to find work in America is the #1 reason why many families don’t make it to see the American Dream. In the pursuit of the American Dream the economic status is the gist of success. In Obama’s ‘A More Perfect Union’, he states that “A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that come for not being able to provide for one’s family, contribute to the erosion of black families...”(para 28). This stems from being a minority in America moreover the race issue. Women who would try to find jobs in spite of, fulfilling their thought of the American Dream would soon find out that they’re a lot that they just simply cannot do. Also the working women will never make more than any man that’s bringing in money and someone that’s lower class getting paid a little to zilch. By that, they may never find out what the American Dream really

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Many immigrants all over the world come to U.S every year to seek their American Dream, which is a national ethos of the United States. Moreover, the American Dream is used in a lot of ways but it essentially is a set of ideas that suggest that all people in the USA can succeed through hard work. Moreover, anyone has potential to lead a happy, successful life. A lot of people believe that rising social mobility and success is possible in the U.S for everyone due to the American economic and political system. James Truslow Adams in 1931 defined the American dream as: "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.”…

    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wendell Wilkie once said, “I believe in America because we have great dreams, and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true”. By saying this, Wilkie described what makes America special, the “American Dream”. The American Dream is the set of ideals that have been instilled into our country since our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Although many claim that the American Dream is merely that, a dream, many people, from a family member to a celebrity known world wide, have fought their way to success in a way that can only be described as living the American Dream. The American Dream is the mindset that all Americans have the opportunity to create success through hard work, no matter their background.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rosewood Ignorance

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages

    America's racist past has created a wall that separates people of different color from engaging with each other. It is the wall that allows people to have prejudicial attitudes towards others. This ongoing evil that is spoiling America, is rooted in society's ignorance. Furthermore, it is important to understand the benefits…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Wealthiest Men of the Gilded Age The American dream is the idea of prospering and achieving success through determination with the abundance of resources and opportunities provided in the United States. This idea is what every person works for in their lifetime. Three men made it very clear that the American dream was possible starting with very little. Throughout the Gilded Age in American history, Industrialists Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt sought the American dream through wealth and greed by taking advantage of the workplace but also advanced society by providing opportunities.…

    • 1538 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Dream is a popular term around the world. Many people came to United States and searched for American Dream. I believe everyone who arrived here is trying to find a new opportunity that will make themselves more successful in life. People also believe no matter what social classes you are in, if you work hard in United States, you will reach the goal of life. This term gained popularity after American Revolution, or Independent Day, but what exactly is American Dream?…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Dream, a very familiar metaphor that one heard a lot nowadays. Author, news anchor, politician, immigrant, and many other people keep stating this phrase. What does it means really? According to an article from Time Magazine, James Truslow Adams is the popular historian who made this phrase famous through his book, The Epic of America. Adams states some of the value that contained inside the American dream in which are “economic success” and the ability to “grow to fullest development as men and women, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had been erected for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class”(Adams XI).…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American Dream, or promise of freedom and equal opportunities, is still accessible to all Americans because America rewards hard working citizens that can better their lives by going through pain and hardships to achieve success. To begin, the American Dream gives all Americans an opportunity to achieve freedom and success, but citizens have to be determined to put in hard work and go through pain and suffering to accomplish it. In the poem “Europe and America”, David Ignatow explains how the father went through misery and torture, but fought through it to try and make his son’s life better. Throughout his life, the father faced many difficult challenges compared to his son, who explains that “While I am bedded upon soft green money…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The American dream is the foundation of American beliefs and is still achievable but it only impacts few citizens which shows there are huge problems but they can be fixed. Women have trouble establishing themselves and have been discriminated against over their male counterpart all the time. Not only gender, but race as African Americans are having trouble finding jobs and even in the 21st century the employed black population is not as high as people would think instead the percentage is going down. Social status keeps you where start and can basically predetermine your outcome, whether the disadvantages there are or the fact of the low movement rate in America. Discrimination of gender, race, and social class threatens and determines the…

    • 1645 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The “American Dream” is this wild idea that people should be able to come to America and make better lives for themselves or their families. However, this concept is different from person to person, and for some reason not everyone thinks that the “American Dream” should apply to non-Americans. For one person, the American dream could be about making money and living in a mansion without a single gay or Hispanic person living within one hundred miles, and for another person, it could be about being able to get married and have the marriage be recognized legally. I’m not one to judge other peoples’ dreams, I but I know people who have that first one and I don’t consider them family, despite what the blood lines say.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Together we can do anything together America can do anything. (Cooke1) Racism is complicated, and has an individual aspect of prejudice. But even worse is the reality that generations of racist attitudes are now woven into our systems and institutions like poisonous threads, hurting us all. (Watkins1) When our election laws begin again to systematically make it harder for African Americans to vote; when police forces protect and defend some people less than others and are not held accountable; when schools and jobs are routinely of lower quality in areas where people of color live; and when white people don’t know or care, then we have a system that perpetuates racism whether the people in it intend to be racist or not.…

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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 a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S. The Death of a Salesman and The Atlanta Exposition Address both tell a story of men striving to achieve the American dream. In The Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman strives to make it rich by being a salesman. We are never told what Mr. Loman is selling and maybe this is so all individuals will relate to him.…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The American Dream generally means that everyone should have an equal opportunity to have success through hard work. Even though it states that everyone should? Do they really have the opportunity? Unfortunately, the answer to that question in some cases is no. The next question would be why.…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American Dream is often defined as the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American; its is also defined as a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by the individual citizens of the U.S. (Dictionary.com) This so-called dream has been around since before the founding of the country; its main purpose in the beginning was to allow people to flee from European countries that supported religious freedom. Now the vision of the American dream has shifted not just once, but billions of times every individual has his or her own personal dream now and more often then not, no two dreams are the same. According to an online article titled “America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century, Part 1,” most of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by women and men, who, in the face of religious persecution in Europe, fled to America because they refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions.…

    • 1061 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. For centuries, immigrants from all ethnicities have come to the United States in search of this American dream. A place where they could prosper and support their families. Most immigrants who come to the US, are not welcome initially, but throughout the time they become accepted. This American dream has changed throughout time. .…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Dream Attainable

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The american dream is and has always been what the citizens of America strive to achieve. The thought that no matter where you come from you have a chance at success is empowering. It has given citizens hope for as long as the country has existed. The definition of the american dream has varied dramatically throughout history, from once meaning to be able to overcome the social class you were born and triumph over adversity until today’s definition of being able to attain large amounts of money without using any effort. Because of citizens working towards achieving their dream, it has caused a positive impact on society, due to the hard work of people.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics