Killing the American Dream Through Demographics

Killing the American Dream through Demographics

As much as many Americans don’t want to believe it, race social class, and gender all play a role in a person’s success of living out the “American Dream”. In these three essays “Still Separate, Still Equal” written by Jonathan Kozol, “Horatio Alger” written by Harlon L. Dalton, and “Class in America-2003” written by Gregory Mantsios, they show that the American Dream is only achieved or lived out by those who had it handed to them growing up.

Kozolwas very passionate in writing his essay about how your race and class makes a lot of difference in what type of education you received. He witnessed the economic inequalities for education due to racism between the minorities (being blacks and Hispanics) and the “wealthy whites”. He argued that minorities were overlooked and the children held no value, and in turn received poor education by underpaid, under qualified teachers. Children of those inner-city schools could not be kids because of the way they were taught, the unsanitary kitchens they ate in, and the lack of a gymnasium or black top to play on. On the other hand, Kozol points out that if they grew up in the wealthiest white suburbs of New York City, then the students would receive a fair public education worth $18,000 as oppose to an $8,000 a year education. The teachers would also have been more qualified and paid a good salary. By the same token, Dalton emphasizes how race plays a role in the success of American people (239-255).

In Dalton’s “Horatio Alger” he argues that Alger’s myth in “From Ragged Dick” is not true. He criticizes a concept of the American Dream which is an idea that presents Americaas a country where opportunity is bound to be successful for people who work hard, those who are talented, and those who are determined, regardless of their gender, race or social status. Dalton implies that not only is the myth false, but it is doing harm to our society because equality is only a...