K is half Eastern European Jewish and half Anglo-Saxon. He is an expat living in Canada. He defined the American dream in terms of a historical definition, “I’m a bit of a history geek – in my mind, the American dream isn’t the American dream that is the post World War II cliché. It is the American dream of the American experiment. The idea of a post-monarchist republic. Self-government in a land that is nowhere near it’s resource limits. Working hard on a land that could be hard at times, but if you work hard it will deliver and you can rise up.”
He saw this on his Jewish side where his great-great grandparents came to the U.S. with four dollars and a new idea for welding shoes and built a shoe welding empire. Something very interesting about K is he often reflects on his dueling family history as a way to view the country. He’s done a lot of reflecting on how half of his family or identity comes from people who were oppressed (Eastern European Jewish) but thrived in the U.S. in a story that really does show the success of the American Dream, and then the other half of his identity which comes from oppressors (Anglo-Saxon).
For [atrocities] not to repeat themselves, for us to get better as people, as a country we need to be informed, we need to have to uncomfortable conversations.
Our conversation slowly merged into us talking about Indigenous people in both America and Canada. K is an expat living in Canada and Canada does not have as much of a history with slavery as does the U.S., but their treatment of Indigenous people was and is just as terrible or even more so than the U.S. K also looked back into the history of his dad’s side of the family, and said one night he just kept digging and digging into his Anglo-Saxon side and it led him to the Massachusetts Natick Praying Indian villages and he learned what his family was involved with on that side.
We were discussing how the root of the American Dream, the history of it and how it has evolved is so important to look back at specifically during this time, and during our current political climate K spoke of his research: “My jaw dropped, I was in tears. I didn’t sleep that night, I just kept digging and digging and digging. And it made me realize that at this moment in time, whether you’re talking about BLM, Idle Know More, etc., there is so many uncomfortable conversations we need to have and we need to be better at being uncomfortable. That’s my dream that we are better at being uncomfortable instead of being defensive.”
K recognized his family’s part in some of the atrocities that make up our countries history. He also recognized that for these not to repeat themselves, for us to get better as people, as a country we need to be informed, we need to have uncomfortable conversations.
K is…
- 38 Years-Old
- Male, Cisgender
- White
- Jewish
- American living in Canada
- Middle Class
- Hetero
