African American Dream

African American Dream

America a place of opportunity in every corner provides areas in politics, science, and the arts. American citizens strive for the chance to become who they want to be, and develop a passion for their own individualistic skills. Leading many Americans to strive for a sense of success through hard work and determination. This ideology of American achievement in society and becoming embedded in the culture creates the American Dream. Even though some may say the American Dream is not possible for different ethnicity. The American Dream in fact can be achieved by all ethnicity. A ethnic group that shows the view of achievements possible are African Americans. African Americans in order to retrieve the American Dream in their ethnic group is by education and self-awareness. Without these two main components African Americans idealistically cannot achieve the full extent of the American Dream.

African Americans need self-awareness of the stereotypes associated within America in order to protect themselves, in multiple circumstances they are prosecuted through discrimination by the police in the United States. One of multiple incidents that attracted much attention was the shooting of a young African American named Oscar Grant. The shooting took place in Fruit Vale train station located in the city of San Francisco that caused multiple peaceful revolts and chaotic ones throughout the country. The officer named Mehserle mistakenly shot Oscar on new years day confusing his gun with his taser. Even though Oscar pleaded with the officer through multiple eyewitnesses to not shoot Mehserle did and doing so punctured a hole through Oscars chest and ricocheting the bullet into his lung. The very next morning Oscar died leaving his girlfriend and young daughter. The officer was prosecuted with murder but was released on early parole. The shooting of Oscar Grant was of one of multiple occasions still seen in America today. Throughout the United States thousands of African Americans cannot cooperate accordingly with police officers causing them to be killed. Many African Americans try presumably to intimidate police officers hoping the officer will leave. But in doing so the reaction is quite the opposite and instead the officer becomes more aggressive. Most policeman avoid prosecution by their role in the police department or even their ethnicity. The underlying reason why self-awareness has to be understood for African Americans is to insure their own individual safety. Without securing their safety African Americans can never achieve the American Dream.

Another form of self-awareness that African Americans have to know is the previous generations of colored people and what they achieved to aid the present generation, and to not be led astray of their culture. One of the generations that insured civil rights and black culture in american culture was the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s) was an age of renewal for African Americans in which they expressed themselves through art, writing, dance, and even music. Famous musicians such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie provided the foundations of present day jazz. While writers such as Langston Hughes provided black comedy through literature. Past events such as music, dance , writing, and art need to be seen by present day African Americans. Specifically the Harlem Renaissance gave blacks a chance to express themselves similar to the US during its founding. The word Renaissance means a age of old culture revival in this case black culture is being revived. Eventually though at the start of the Great Depression the Harlem Renaissance died , but left a mark in the US that African Americans have provided their own sense of citizenship and culture. If present day blacks do not know information of their past, eventually this sense of culture and citizenship can die. A novel called The Great Gatsby took a toll in this era of time as well, and became America's most prized novel in history. Ideally the reason being this book seems to connect to the white supremacy in 1920’s New York City , which mistakenly is not surprising since the book praises the perspective of the white american dream . The dreary atmosphere of bustingly New York followed by the rich white populated suburbs outside of it. Through the whole story a white perspective is portrayed through the novel, without hinting at all of the growing foundations of the most crucial parts of African American history. Or even mention segregation feuds between white and black culture. Novels like The Great Gatsby that don’t hint or even mention other crucial parts of the set history distill present day generations of the past. African Americans who are not self-aware of their past and how it’s manipulated are not able to achieve the actual American Dream but a false one.

Education is an essential need by many African Americans since it gives them futures. After finishing high school most African Americans do not enter college. More than 47% of blacks accept a education. Making many African Americans without jobs to support themselves causing a wider gap between the middle and low class in the United States. Without a proper education many blacks end up committing acts of crime to pursue their needs. This connects back to the stereotypes seen to appeal to all African Americans. Even physical appearance stereotypes affect even if blacks can receive a career. Education prospectively would ruin most of the stereotypes associated blacks. Thus creating a more primary focus for African Americans to widen their horizons, and set goals on the bigger pictures of the world. If African Americans have one ideal or “tunnel vision” then nothing is really fulfilling ,thousands of other opportunities are skipped because of this. Education is crucial in a American society in order to strive and become a successful person. Without Education blacks will lose the opportunity to succeed in the American Dream.

African Americans have the ability to achieve the American Dream it only takes education and self-awareness to succeed. For few the road to success can be difficult at times while for others it is easily achievable. The American Dream is something that in the beginning has to be worked for in some way be it little or small but then provide a pay off. The choices made by others ,and the decisions by individuals is what makes the American Dream a successful ideology.