If the American Dream isn’t possible for everyone, is it possible for anyone?
A’s father, an immigrant from South Asia, lived what America advertises as the American Dream. For a majority of her life, A’s had the same perception.
“I grew up hearing his story about how he came here with $120 in his pocket and went to grad school, and made this amazing life for me and my brother,” she said.
She currently lives her American Dream as an upper middle class woman with a job she enjoys as a research compliance officer at a university in the Midwest United States. Both she and her husband’s wages are sufficient to provide for her two sons one of them kept joining the interview.
However, she has learned that America has falsely advertised the concept of the American Dream in a society with so few opportunities, especially when housing prices are much higher than they used to be.
It’s this kind of nebulous, fictional idea that we’re a meritocracy. But we’re not.
“I don’t feel that [the American Dream] exists. I feel like it’s this kind of nebulous, fictional idea that we’re a meritocracy. But we’re not. We’re so not. We talked about falling through the cracks, but it’s not falling through the cracks. It’s that people are disregarded completely,” she said.
The American Dream was always taught in the classroom as a concept relating to the individual that reinforced capitalist ideals. However, A disrupted that idea for many by saying that we must not think of the concept on just an individual, microscopic level. The American Dream – or being able to live off of one’s wage and support their family if they work hard – is only achievable for one if it’s achieved by everyone.
“Am I living the American dream at a macroscopic level? No. Because it’s not about me. It’s about being a part of a society. And our society is suffering. So how can I say that I’m living the American dream. When I’m living in a toxic society?” she said.
It’s about being a part of a society. And our society is suffering. So how can I say that I’m living the American dream.
Her identity as a Jewish woman with South Asian descent never left her with
any closed doors, she said. But when she was younger, she learned second-hand through her mother’s volunteer work about the disadvantaged communities that exist in America and why the American Dream doesn’t exist for many.
“I was raised with that purpose: that our job is to take whatever advantages we have, and use those to help people who don’t have those advantages,” she said. As a result, A continues to dream for others.
‘A’ is…
- 44 Years-Old
- Female, Cisgender
- White
- American of South Asian Descent
- Upper Middle Class
