My perception of the American Dream has begun to change from optimistic to critical, as I’ve learned how hard it is for everyone to capture my idea of the “American Dream.” When I sat down with B to discuss the American Dream, I learned that my perception of it does not fall far from his, but he opened my eyes to a different narrative that I hadn’t expected.
B is a twenty-year-old Middle Eastern, gay, cisgender male who identifies as Muslim from the Northeast. He currently attends university in New York and is a junior studying retail and marketing management. Like me, he attended a predominantly white school district at home, where he first conceptualized what the American Dream meant. Through war propaganda posters, B was taught that the American Dream embodied gender roles. “Every time I saw them, if there were ever a woman on a poster, it would be here doing ‘wifely duties’ like cooking, cleaning, nothing in a professional setting.” This is a stark contrast to how the men would be depicted. “They [men] were always in professional settings. They were shown in light of a higher power. Big, muscular, masculine men.”
Woman were doing ‘wifely duties’ like cooking, cleaning, nothing in a professional setting… Men were always in professional settings in power. Big, muscular, masculine men.”
As a gay man, B understands that his sexuality disrupts the traditional American Dream narrative stating, “Being a homosexual man is already a red flag in the traditional sense of the American Dream. Having kids and being able to raise my own too, that’s a situation I have to think about.”
From his exposure, he concluded that the original American Dream applies to a traditional setting where the man supports the family, the wife raises the kids. However, this scenario is not the case for all, as the narrative for the ideal American Dream varies from individual to individual.
To emphasize this, B described the difference in college atmospheres between the Middle East and America. “Especially from where I’m from in the Middle East, school is something that is so serious. My mom told me stories of her brothers being dripping in sweat and taking their exams because it was that hard and stressful. That’s how much they took school so seriously.” In America, this isn’t the case. The college experience in America highlights a social life and academic balance, which B describes as, “It’s so different and so particular to America.” From his experience, B concluded that the American Dream has to be individualized because no one person has the same particular values as another.
Hearing about B’s own perception of the American Dream emphasizes the exact point he was making, that it’s different from individual to individual. There’s no set idea of the American Dream because everyone carries out their version of it based on what they’ve known and been taught. Even though we were exposed to the American Dream in the same manner, the way we experienced the world after it changed our perceptions in an individualized way.
B is…
- 20 Years-Old
- Male, Cisgender
- Middle Eastern
- Muslim
- Middle Class
- Homosexual
