Reflections on the American Dream by Tomeka M. Robinson

Reflections on the American Dream by Tomeka M. Robinson

The overarching question posted is:

Is the American Dream alive for every race/ethnicity?

I stand in firm negation of this question and will provide several reasons why throughout this case.

But first, I would like to start with some definitions to ground my thoughts:

American Dream (Merriam Webster Dictionary)- the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative

Alive- still in existence, force, or operation

Race- social construct based on perceived phenotypical attributes, i.e. no biological basis 

Ethnicity- belonging to a particular ethnic affiliation or group

While the American Dream is the idea that every citizen SHOULD have equal opportunity, evidence proves that not every citizen DOES have equal opportunity.

Contention 1:

America’s history of structural, persistent, and infectious racism has served as a bedrock for inequality for the past 400 years.

Racism is one of the systemic elements that perpetuate white privilege and systems of power and oppression.

Racism, bigotry, and prejudice are related to psychological elements of Americans’ daily lives, but racism also refers to the ways that institutions, culture, and social systems reflect the historic oppression of persons of color in America and perpetuate inequality as a result.

Political Scientist Dr. Stephen Caliendo argues in his 2018 book Inequality in America: Race, Poverty, and Fulfilling Democracy’s Promise:

While our collective conscious-level attitudes about racial equality have progressed, this system continues to operate in ways that privilege whites and disadvantage persons of color.

This is what is called systemic racism, institutional racism, or structural racism.

Racism is related to both implicit and explicit prejudice, and all three relate to the persistence of inequality in America.

Contention 2:

Systems of power and oppression are embedded in our social fabric and are reified daily.

Sociologists Drs. Joe Feagin & Eileen O’Brien argue in their 2003 book, “White Men on Race: Power, Privilege, and the Shaping of Cultural Consciousness:

In the United States, racial prejudice and discrimination remain pervasive and imbedded in a system of racism that provides significant advantages for white Americans at the expense of African Americans and other Americans of color. This system includes not only racial stereotypes and prejudices, but also a racial ideology, powerful racialized emotions, a range of discriminatory practices, and the institutions in which the foregoing are imbedded. The result of this is significant inequality in resources, privileges, and power. For nearly four centuries, white-generated racism has been structured deeply into the rhythms of everyday life across the nation.

Even a brief review of the historical evidence reveals the deep reality of racial oppression in the US. This system of oppression meant long centuries of slavery and legal segregation for African Americans. In the modern era, slavery and segregation have been replaced by large-scale, informal discrimination. In addition, other Americans of color have faced racial oppression in various forms at the hands of white Americans.

Fundamental to this system is that it reproduces itself across many generations of societal structures and processes. As a result, it maintains the racial hierarchy and its unequal access to resources and privileges. Without these societal structures and their constitutive organizations, racial oppression would not persist and thrive.

A key to understanding the social context of how systems of oppression have been constructed and reinforced over many generations is to look at residential segregation. Current research indicates that all US metropolitan areas are still very segregated along residential lines. For example, using 2000 census data, researchers have calculated statistical indices of residential segregation for the thirty largest metropolitan areas. This is in part to discriminatory redlining policies during much of the 20^th century which created wealthy suburbs and poorer inner city neighborhoods and rural area. Moreover, people of color were also kept out of white neighborhoods by violence and by the formation of neighborhood improvement organizations that influenced policymakers, boycotted real estate agents who did not respect their preference, and bribed residents of color to leave.

Residential segregation is significant because the routes to economic security for 3 reasons:

1)    Our system of political representation is based on geography.

2)    Access to quality education is related to place of residence.

3)    Access to jobs—especially for those who do not have reliable transportation—relies on affordable housing near employment centers.

Residential segregation structures the “segregation tax” producing far less housing wealth in Black and Latinx communities and the way in which substandard, inferior schools are located predominately in neighborhoods where minorities and low-income families are concentrated. Most Americans who achieve economic and social success after being born into poverty do so as a result of their educational achievements. Limited educational opportunities disproportionately affect Blacks and Hispanics and the overly simplistic commonsense approach to addressing so-called failing schools such as placing blame and burden on the teachers alone is inadequate because it ignores how social class characteristics in a stratified society may actually influence learning in schools.

Contention 3:

There is a fundamental difference between inequality of opportunities and inequality of outcomes.

While many would like to ignore how substantial socioeconomic benefits that centuries of slavery and segregation have brought to white Americans, research proves that this is not the case and has provided the framework for the inequality of opportunity.

Despite our national folklore, America does indeed have a class system that affects individuals’ ability to achieve the American Dream and because of the centuries of systemic racism, you cannot easily separate class from race in America. America’s poorest and most economically vulnerable citizens are still distinctly black and brown. 

We are taught to belief that those who are financially successful (as well as those who have access to excellent educational institutions) are fully deserving of that privilege while those who are not must have acted badly at some point, and therefore, deserve their poverty. Such a generalization is unfair and harmful because it obscures systemic factors that contribute to poverty (and wealth) in order to rectify injustice.

Reducing inequality does not entail allotting the same amount of possessions, money, and debt to each individual, instead it refers to the dramatic (and increasing) gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans, and the disproportionate levels of poverty (and its corresponding characteristics such as incarceration, illiteracy, health disparities, and etc.) in communities of color.

Contention 4:

Dismantling systems of oppression is the only way to achieve true equality of opportunity.

Systems can only be as stable as the flow of human choice, consent, resistance, and creativity, all of which makes permanence impossible. An oppressive system often seems stable only because it limits our lives and imaginations so thoroughly that we can’t see anything else. But the illusion of permanence masks a fundamental, long-term instability caused by the dynamics of oppression itself. Any system organized around one group’s efforts to subordinate and exploit another is ultimately a losing proposition, because it contradicts the essentially uncontrollable nature of reality.

But to dismantle these systems, we first have to acknowledge that they even exist and our participation in them. Systems of oppression and privilege are based on paradigms and worldviews that shape how we think about difference and how we organized social life in relation to it.

In conclusion, evidence proves that there are inequalities in opportunities; therefore, it has been proven that in our current configuration the American Dream is not accessible for every citizen.

Closing Thoughts

Tonight, I have demonstrated that there are inequalities in opportunities which lead to inequalities in outcomes. Therefore, it has been proven that in our current configuration the American Dream is not accessible for every citizen.

However, if we can acknowledge and dismantle systemic racism and other systems of oppression (sexism, ableism, heteronormativity, classism, Islamaphobia, Anti-Semitism, ageism, and so forth) then and only the will the American Dream become a reality for every citizen.

Here are some things that you can do:

1)    Acknowledge that privilege and oppression exist

2)    Pay attention to the stories of those around you, especially to those that are different from you.

3)    Learn to listen for understanding and not just to respond.

4)    Actively promote change in how systems are organized around privilege:

5)    Promote awareness and training around issues of privilege, including safeguards and procedures for minimizing the effects of implicit bias

6)    Oppose the devaluing of women, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and etc.

7)    Ask questions about how work, education, religion, and family are shaped by core values and principles that support privilege

8)    Openly support those who take a risk and advocate for others