In American schools, we are fed a vital lesson: if we work hard enough, we can accomplish anything we dream of. This is vastly true for middle-class suburbia, but the sentiment does not necessarily remain accurate for everyone living in America.
Practically all Americans yearn for some idealized rendition of the American dream. We all want some version of success and happiness. We all crave something more palatable --more palpable--than the contents of the red, white, and blue spoon that fed us the lessons we wholeheartedly swallowed as kids.
But are all dreams equal?
Is all opportunity equal?
In a quest to measure the accessibility of the American dream, I've had to consider countless uncomfortable questions.
What groups of people achieve the most in American society?
What factions are excluded from the American dream?
What can an oppressed individual do to achieve success in this country?
Today, many reject the conventional aspects of the American dream; since the sixties, youth have engaged in non-traditional, experimental living and unified subculture. This is a visceral reaction in response to the realization that a white picket fence and mid
Ultimately, the American dream was never designed for everyone. American society has never permitted liberty and justice for all: the colonists murdered the natives; the puritans hanged fellow sinners; the descendants of immigrants refuse to hire Mexicans.
Nonetheless, our country is a place of privilege and prejudice. Every once in a while, you'll read about a boy raised in poverty who was accepted to Yale or an immigrant becoming a valedictorian.
We view these stories as exceptional because they defy the truth we all know but can't blurt out: the American dream is a somewhat dishonest promise. It's readily available if you were born into the right class, the right family, the right skin color, and the right place at the right time. If most of the conditions do not apply, life will be harder. Becoming greater will be harder.
We, as a result, must take this day to remember the history of our country and the principles on which it was founded. We must embody hope. We must --at the very least-- extend the American dream, modernize it, and make it our own.
