the American Dream

 the American Dream

PART A

Since the end of the Second World War in 1945, the American Dream became one of the greatest phenomena in the world (Callahan 250). The United States was eager to begin its economic, military, technological, and diplomatic growth into a superpower. Additionally, the war had attracted many bright scientists, entrepreneurs, and skilled immigrants into the democratic country. Therefore, the United States assumed relative peace for the next six decades resulting in it becoming the global superpower and experiencing unprecedented growth in wealth, technology, and social development. Such growth is part of what characterized the dream as its democratic systems fuelled by capitalism and hard work pays ethos saw many Americans become successful.

Unfortunately, not all the American society enjoyed these fruits of the American Dream. African Americans had suffered through slavery for three centuries prior to World War One. Even after the abolition of slavery, they still suffered racial prejudice especially in the southern parts such as Texas and South Carolina. Although they were entitled to equal education and military opportunities, finding employment afterwards became difficult (Callahan 255). Only the most intelligent from these communities could access Ivy League colleges and even then, they had to endure with a lot of inquisitive stares. Majority of the African American community were relegated to the cheap housing infrastructure in the lower urban areas where unemployment, racial prejudice, and police brutality condemned them to crime, prostitution, and drug abuse. The few who had skills in sports and games such as basketball, American football, baseball, and music gained some upward social mobility from these regions called ‘projects’ and moved into suburban mansions. Although African Americans were most affected, the insignificance of the American dream affected the Native Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and even some European immigrants. However, due to their skin colour and ability to blend into the White majority faster, they regained some significant foothold.

The 2008 economic crisis and its subsequent recession hit the American economy very hard. The housing losses alone amounted to over 4.2 trillion US dollars as banking and other financial institutions foreclosed on all mortgaged houses leaving hundreds of thousands of American citizens homeless and destitute. Additionally, the debt crisis also meant that many employers could not afford to retain their workers making employment another major problem. However, the manner in which these problems affected the American community also reflected its stratified nature. Most of the White American citizens had enjoyed the benefits of several decades of being empowered in a biased economy meaning most had either bought their houses or could use their savings to clear mortgages or car loans while remaining financially afloat. However, communities such as African Americans and Hispanics still faced an upward task surviving in the racially prejudicial American society (Callahan 266). Their lack of access to the American Dream and missing social mobility meant that majority of those who lost their jobs during the recession that followed the crisis were from these two communities.

Additionally, the lucky ones who had gained meaningful education and achieved enough financial muscle to get mortgages still faced foreclosure as banks especially targeted them in their strategic eradication of risky loans and financial liabilities. Therefore, the American Dream has continuously benefited the White community in the United States, but it still remains elusive to most of the African American and Hispanic community. The current President’s reckless handling of the matter has not been helpful as silent racists have found platforms to reintroduce prejudice against these communities.

PART B

Global immigration is defined as the intentional or unintentional movement of people from one part of the world to another. Intentional global immigration is driven by factors such as the search for better employment, academic studies, climatic changes, or travel and resettlement. Such immigration usually occurs from one’s country to another better one or from one country to another one as required by the employer. Unintentional global immigration is driven by unfortunate factors such as economic strife causing unemployment or suffering, war, racial or religious persecution, and climatic changes such as global warming.

Global immigration also exists in the same space with other factors such as prejudice, discrimination, and racism. Prejudice is a range of preconceived notions directed at other people or groups of people that harbour negative connotations related to feeling more superior or better than them (MacMaster 172). Within the context of global immigration, prejudice plays several relatively crucial roles. First, all forms of global immigration are subject to policies that the destination countries set up. Most of these policies are intended to protect their citizens from the negative effects of outsiders flooding into the country such as increased unemployment and crime. However, the majority of the current immigration policies are based on prejudicial notions that state the citizenry is by default better than incoming outsiders.

Although these notions are concealed in religious difference, ethnicity, terrorisms, and academics, their basis clearly seems to be prejudice. Secondly, most of the current prejudicial policies controlling global immigration tend to be biased against the economic and social benefits of immigrants (Menéndez Alarcón and Novak 97). Most countries have the preconceived notion that global immigrants generally have negligible net benefits on their economy, especially in scenarios that involve unintentional immigration.

Discrimination is the unjust and often illegal treatment of a group of people or certain individuals based on prejudicial notions surrounding them. The victims of such treatment often belong to a different race, religious group, gender, or political persuasion from the person meting out discrimination.  Looking at discrimination from the perspective of global immigration, one realizes that majority of immigrants face this vice the moment they land in their destination. Whether the movement is for work, education, leisure, or even running away from war or persecution, the immigrant almost always gets discriminated against. Immigration policies in some of the most advanced countries such as the United States, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom discriminate against certain races such as African Americans and Africans (MacMaster 177). They also discriminate against particular religious groups mostly Muslims due to the recent radicalization of specific Muslim groups and terrorist activity.

Interestingly, a phenomenon referred to as reverse discrimination is taking root in the United States. African Americans have been persecuted for more than three centuries in the American continent. However, they have started discriminating their fellow Africans based on recent social developments that have seen them gain education, wealth, and positions of power in the American society.

Racism is the meting out of prejudice, antagonism, and even discrimination against sure people from a different race based on the preconceived notion that one’s race is far superior to theirs (MacMaster 180). This backward vice has been the subject of most policies in global immigration policy-making exercises. Unfortunately, the current American president has recklessly uplifted specific public policies that elevate racist sentiment among the retrogressive White community in the United States. Ironically, most of these White consider the United States theirs by right and demand that Africa Americans and other minority groups such as Hispanics, Native Americans, and African or Asian immigrants return to their homelands. However, the truth of the matter is that the United States land formerly belonged to the Native American tribes that are currently locked in reserves. Additionally, the current social practice and phenomenon of globalization have allowed human beings to travel anywhere or settle anywhere they feel like as long as they contribute positively to the society and environment (MacMaster 185). Indeed, the greatness of the United States concerning its technological innovation, military might, economic prosperity, and even political diplomacy are all functions of its vast ethnic and cultural diversity.

PART C

Social promotion is a truly unique method of retaining positive mindsets among students that the United States education system uses. It involves allowing students to proceed to the next level of their elementary education even while their academic performance would ordinarily retain them for an extra year in their previous year of study (Li 201). Academic scholars, parents tout this practice, and other significant stakeholders as mostly beneficial hence justified. However, not all cities in the US subscribe to that school of thought as witnessed by the growing number of towns banning social promotion in their schools.

The pros of social promotion mostly emanate from the uplifting effect that the practice has on the student’s mindset. The first advantage of social promotion in the United States education system is the promotion of young learners’ self-esteem. Prior research into the impacts of repeating entire academic years has shown that the child develops inferiority complexes that negatively affect their self-esteem. However, allowing the child to continue their education alongside their friends and academic peers also builds their confidence which poor academic performance may have altered.

Another advantage of social promotion is that it prevents the child from having to face the difficulties of academic retention. Most countries’ academic syllabus and practices require children to pass specific mandatory examinations to gauge their proficiency with regards to oncoming syllabi. Forcing a child to remain behind for another academic year as his or her friends and classmates advance may do severe damage to their self-esteem (Li 201). It also prevents the student from having to contend with bullying from fellow students with whom the student has to repeat or developing confidence issues.

The third advantage of social promotion is that it lowers the rate of academic drop-outs. Most American children in the elementary and high school levels who drop out of school have been observed to have repeated at least one class in their academic life. The main reason they give apart from the self-esteem and reduced confidence is a feeling of being inadequate in the face of the rigors of academics. Having to repeat an entire academic year feels like the student was not fit for academics in the first place. However, social promotion reduces the rate of school dropouts based on these dynamics.

Unfortunately, not all that surrounds the unique practice of social promotion in American education systems is positive. The first disadvantage of social promotion in the American academic society is its risk of developing uneducated students. While the United States academic curriculum is one of the best worldwide, its statistics regarding actual education among young students do not measure up. Many American teens cannot even accomplish simple spelling, and arithmetic tasks leave alone more complex high school and university or college projects. One of the reasons for this discordance between academic progression and actual education is social promotion.

The second disadvantage of social promotion is that dilutes the role and efficiency of the teaching staff. All teachers must perform their tasks in not only instruction and guidance in the process of learning but also intervene when education is slow or completely non-existent. To execute this task, teachers are allowed to identify and recommend students whose academics may benefit from repeating and retention. However, social promotion denies teaching staff this role and dilutes their participation in the actual learning process.

The practice of social promotion also short-changes the students and their parents. Parents designate the role of academic development to the United States educational system and its teaching staff. However, when the same system recommends unqualified students to continue to the next level when their developments have not demonstrated themselves, this exposes these students to compromised learning (Li 201). It also qualifies as fraud against parents who have to save up years before to meet the financial needs the expensive requirements of American schooling involves.

PART D

Technological developments have affected many facets of human life. One critical aspect of humanity is interaction whereby innovations such as the internet and social media have completely changed the way we interact. The first change in that regard is that there are less face-to-face interaction and more of remote online communication. Using digital devices such as smartphones, laptop computers, and tablets, human beings can interact with each other using the internet and peripheral devices such as webcams and headphones equipped with microphones (Valkenburg 480). Another change has come up in the form of social media groups that differ from those human beings have relied upon before. Nowadays, groups are formed via social based on similar interests in the social sphere such as music and sports while interaction beforehand was based on physical availability. Finally, social media has also changed our emotional interactions whereby human processes such as dating and courtship no longer require physical interaction. Many married couples met through social media platforms such as Facebook and remain happily married. The results are more diverse marriages.

Interestingly, social media has also affected how our social relationships develop. The mass proliferation of mass-approved examples of economic and social success in the form of cars, jobs, appearance, and clothing have affected the society’s notion of progress. Initially, human beings had their own distinct and personalized, but due to social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, Western media content has started influencing other societies. The results include many fans of social media exposing too much of their social and economic lives in a bid to emulate their role models and others even living beyond their means (Valkenburg 485). Additionally, morality has been adversely affected by the proliferation of practices some communities consider taboo such as homosexuality and nudity. Social media has transformed our notion of appropriate and presentable or acceptable as many users have reverted from their principles and slowly slipped into the current practices of excessive self-exposure, compromised physical and emotional relationships, and lost sense of pride.

Works Cited

Callahan, William A. “Dreaming as a critical discourse of national belonging: China Dream, American Dream and world dream.” Nations and Nationalism, vol. 23, no. 2, 2017, pp. 248-270.

Li, Jennifer D. “Ending Social Promotion Without Leaving Children Behind: The Case of New York City: Summary.” PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2009, p. 201.

MacMaster, Neil. “Racism in the Age of Labour Immigration, 1945–1974.” Racism in Europe 1870–2000, 2001, pp. 169-189.

Menéndez Alarcón, Antonio V., and Katherine B. Novak. “Latin American immigrants in Indianapolis: Perceptions of prejudice and discrimination.” Latino Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 2010, pp. 93-120.

Valkenburg, Patti M. “Understanding Self-Effects in Social Media.” Human Communication Research, vol. 43, no. 4, 2017, pp. 477-490.