The American Dream essay

The American Dream essay

Introduction

Basically, American dream entails the vision where each and every person has the ideal life. In other words, a better life that is fuller and richer and where every person gets an opportunity in accordance with their skills, abilities and achievements in an equal manner without biasness over social class, religion, race or circumstances of birth. According to Cullen (2003), in the United States, it is considered as a national ethos. It basically involves a combination of democracy, liberty, equality, rights and opportunity that gives everyone the freedom to succeed and prosper with little or no barriers at all (Obama, 2006). The U.S constitution also provides for this kind of equality. The American dream was invented by a philosopher called James Truslow Adams.

It has however come to the realization that the American dream is really not meant for every person. A study by Pew Charitable Trusts indicated that there are several factors that influence the dream. Such factors include race, economic background, social class, and sexuality among others. According to Cullen (2003), the raison d’etre of America are brought about by the prejudicial free meritocracy against sexuality, race and religion. It is unfortunate that white people have an upper advantage and possibility of achieving the American dream while people of the other races for instance black and brown people have a fairly low chance despite the fact that most of them have gone to the military. Sometimes the only way that people of colour can achieve the American dream is if they have tremendous talent in music or sports such as baseball, basket ball or football. (Cullen, 2003)

One of the reasons that there is a big difference in achieving the dream based on racial lines is inequality in terms of wealth. Obama (2006), asserts that this is caused by high rates of unemployment, and imploring the market of real estate in many minority groups. Studies have shown that the fastest growing immigrants in America are the people of African origin, all of whom are looking to achieve the American dream (Cullen, 2003). The white people however tend to earn a higher amount of wealth in a short period as compared to the blacks. This also applies to achieving the American dream. Whites even have a larger percentage of wealth than the Hispanic race by 15%. The question that is therefore constant is that, “How does race affect achievement of the American dream?” (Obama, 2006).

Conclusion

It is because of such statistics that figures such as former president Obama are considered to be historical figures. This is because he rose from a background that was not so privileged and achieved it all against every odd. Obama is however the exception, not the rule. The rule is that the chances of one staying poor if they were born poor are higher than the chances of getting rich when they were born poor. People who were born poor are more likely to stay that way, however much unfortunate it sounds.

References

Cullen, J. 2003. “The American Dream.” A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. 

Obama, B. 2006. “ The Audacity of Hope.” Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.