The American dream has changed drastically since the colonial period, evolving from a traditional man in the middle class who put his family first, to a man or woman who’s main priority is to become wealthy. By definition, the American dream is the idea that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Hundreds of years ago, this dream was not attainable due to many barriers that restricted women, immigrants, and people of color specifically. The common caucasian male was the symbol of power and authority in American history, disregarding women from society’s upper ranks, even if there were a woman more suitable to be the leader. America has changed
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Despite where an individual came from, they are able to rise in today’s society due to the lack of social barriers seen commonly in history, and the hard work they are willing to put forth in order to achieve success will be acknowledged. Someone who is extremely successful and well known who came from nothing and put forth a tremendous amount of hard work and effort is Oprah Winfrey, “As a child, Oprah was dressed in potato sacks and now, she only wears designer clothes. With a networth of $2.9 billion, Oprah Winfrey is considered the richest African-American woman in the world” (Rose 1). If one is willing to attain the label of being successful, they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, despite the amount of times they fail. Failure is inevitable when trying to achieve success, people tend to get scared and back out of situations when they receive their first failure rather than keep pursuing their goal. Another person who overcame many struggles and thrived for success is J.K. Rowling, an author who …show more content…
This type of segregation would restrict people of color the opportunity to be successful, “Blacks and Indians suffered most at the hands of a white-dominated society, but Perlmutter also looks at how other non-Europeans, meaning Asians and Mexicans, fared” (Reimers 2). Throughout American history until the mid to late 1900’s, African American people were segregated against harshly and were of the bottom tier of the social pyramid. It was impossible to be someone of color and to be successful in America during that time period, but now everything has changed. There are people of every ethnicity in today’s society that have worked their way from nothing to the goal of total success, an unimaginable dream one hundred years ago. Racial prejudice is a terrible thing that society allows to go on through the intolerance of one 's self teaching, “Racial prejudice is an insidious moral and social disease affecting peoples and populations all over the world. It is diagnosed by the cataloguing of its various symptoms and manifestations which include fear, intolerance, separation, segregation, discrimination, and hatred.” (alll About 1). The progress that Americans have made in fighting for equality within the past 100 years is exemplary, people now have the most equal chance at success now over
Despite where an individual came from, they are able to rise in today’s society due to the lack of social barriers seen commonly in history, and the hard work they are willing to put forth in order to achieve success will be acknowledged. Someone who is extremely successful and well known who came from nothing and put forth a tremendous amount of hard work and effort is Oprah Winfrey, “As a child, Oprah was dressed in potato sacks and now, she only wears designer clothes. With a networth of $2.9 billion, Oprah Winfrey is considered the richest African-American woman in the world” (Rose 1). If one is willing to attain the label of being successful, they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, despite the amount of times they fail. Failure is inevitable when trying to achieve success, people tend to get scared and back out of situations when they receive their first failure rather than keep pursuing their goal. Another person who overcame many struggles and thrived for success is J.K. Rowling, an author who …show more content…
This type of segregation would restrict people of color the opportunity to be successful, “Blacks and Indians suffered most at the hands of a white-dominated society, but Perlmutter also looks at how other non-Europeans, meaning Asians and Mexicans, fared” (Reimers 2). Throughout American history until the mid to late 1900’s, African American people were segregated against harshly and were of the bottom tier of the social pyramid. It was impossible to be someone of color and to be successful in America during that time period, but now everything has changed. There are people of every ethnicity in today’s society that have worked their way from nothing to the goal of total success, an unimaginable dream one hundred years ago. Racial prejudice is a terrible thing that society allows to go on through the intolerance of one 's self teaching, “Racial prejudice is an insidious moral and social disease affecting peoples and populations all over the world. It is diagnosed by the cataloguing of its various symptoms and manifestations which include fear, intolerance, separation, segregation, discrimination, and hatred.” (alll About 1). The progress that Americans have made in fighting for equality within the past 100 years is exemplary, people now have the most equal chance at success now over