San Fernando Senior High School

African American Essay

The truth about getting ahead for the american Dream

Isabelle Ornelas

`Honors English

Mr.Martin

April 1, 2019
 Did you think getting through the American dream was equally easy with every culture

and race? Well if you did, your wrong. Specifically African Americans have a hard time getting

to the American dream. The American dream is something that everyone would want. The

typical big house in a good neighborhood, being able to have dinner on the table every night and

etc. Although there’s different races and cultures in the United states, everyone has the same goal

in achieving the American dream. But as everyone is trying to achieve it, one racial group such

as African Americans have a hard time achieving it. To gain some understanding on why African

Americans have a hard time achieving this goal, this paper will discuss a variety of reasons of the

issue African Americans are having.

An aspect on why African Americans don’t get ahead in life is the reason of religion. In

the play, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, Lorraine sets examples on why religion is

a characteristic of African Americans not being able to achieve the goal in succeeding in the

American dream. For example in one scene, Walter says, “God didn’t see to give the black man

nothin but dreams” this is an example of Walter having the mindset of him only thinking his

dreams will always just be dreams and is something will be never be able to accomplish due to

the fact of religion getting in the way. Lorraine wanted an example of how even when African

Americans are doing everything they can they still can’t fulfill their dreams. If we compare

white and African American dreams there would be a huge difference in whose dreams are

accomplished faster and easier. This reason being blacks already have to work very hard to just

have food on the table, having clothes are their back and having a social life. With having
trouble with just the aspects of life, the bigger issue is going to be especially hard for blacks to

make their dreams successful.

Another reason would be in this poem it introduces a reason why African Americans

aren’t being too sure of the American dream. In this poem, “The Negro” by James Emanuel

proposes reasons of why African Americans do not get ahead in the American dream. For

example, Emmanuel refers to a line and says, “the haunting man” this is proposed to be a line

meaning African Americans are getting stereotyped. Whites stereotyped Blacks as being

“dangerous” and “scary” which thats what that line implies. Another example is a line, “never

saw him, never can”, this suggest that whites don't seem to get past someone being a different

color than them and well they cant get passed it, it creates a racial stereotype against blacks.

Whites don't seem to just appreciate blacks as individuals but instead seems them as a different

color than them. As whites stereotype African Americans there's another stereotype line in the

poem that says, “Eyes a saucer” this line infers that blacks aren’t normal and refers them to as

“clowns”. The next time Emmanuel refers to is the line, “Razors flicking” this proposes the idea

of African American being dangerous.

Another reason it's hard for African Americans to achieve the goal of the American

dream could be rap a type of music genre that has a huge influence on young African American

boys. In the book, “What’s going on” by Nathan McCall he argues in the essay, “Gangstas,

Guns, and Shoot- ‘em-ups”, explains why rap music has a huge influence on young African

Americans. McCall is making an accusation that rap music to blame of the behavior of young
African Americans who looks up to the people who are making the music. McCall believes rap

music is a way of getting your voice out there. People will see the music as making a political

change.With kids listening to their “idol” or someone they look up to they're going to listen to

their music and listen to every word they're saying which will impact the way they think and the

way they live.

White people could potentially have a huge impact on why African Americans don’t get

ahead in life. In the book “A Raisin in the Sun”, Lorraine Hansberry sets many of examples of

why African Americans don’t get ahead in life economically. For example, Hansberry sets a

example of how African Americans don’t realize that they let the whites set the stereotype that

affects the minds of how they think and also how it shapes their attitudes toward themselves.

Hansberry includes Walter telling Beneatha, “ Race, race, race!... Girl, I do believe you are the

first person in history of the entire human race to successfully brainwash yourself.” I believe

Walter is trying to say is Beneatha has finally set the mindset of being a black person and has not

exactly being okay with it but realized that there’s really nothing she can do about it.

A reason to white people setting the stereotype of black people could be the reason that

they get very little interaction with African Americans. Because white people get so little

interaction with them it’s hard for African Americans to get ahead in a white dominated

economy. They view them very different than themselves which is caused from the lack of

interaction. Hansberry includes a scene of a man coming into the house and the man being very

shocked when they see Walter and Ruth. Almost as the man was scared of them. He was such in
shock of seeing them because whites have such little interaction, therefore was so disturbed

when he saw them. With little interaction how could blacks get ahead in life if they’re not having

interaction with other races?

Spike Lee gives a good explanation of how African Americans are typically stereotyped

in the way they present themselves to others and the way they talk to others. In this movie, “Do

the Right Thing” he presents ways African Americans have trouble getting ahead in life. As we

know before how blacks are typically stereotyped he gives examples on how when a black

person is stereotyped is stops them from getting ahead and instead of going forward in life they

go backwards. For example, he presents scene where family and friends playing in the middle of

the street with a fire hydrant spraying water everywhere on a hot summer day. While they are

playing in the water a white man approaches with a antique car trying to get through the street.

He stops to yell at the guys who were spraying the water and tells them they better not get his car

wet and then threatens if they do he will call the police. The black boys tell him they wont wet

his car and when the guy passes by they spray his car to drench the whole car including him. The

man then get angry and calls the police. When the police arrive the white man then demands to

have the black boys to get arrested. Spike Lee enters this scene to give the example of how white

men think they are so much superior than everyone else. This also infers how white people get

better treatment than African Americans and when you don’t have the same treatment it affects a

person in getting ahead in life.

 Spike Lee then enters another scene of Buggin Out (an African American character)

getting mad when he sits down in the Pizzeria, eating his pizza noticing Big Sal doesn’t have any

African Americans on his wall of fame. Buggin Out approaches the problem very violent and

angry about it. Big Sal then tells him if he wants African Americans on a wall to get his own

place, so he can make his own rules and design his place on how he wants to design it. Buggin

Out is still very mad about the whole situation and causes a huge scene that Mookie is

embarrassed about. Sal tells Mookie to calm down his friend or kick him out of the pizzeria.

Mookie then kicks out Buggin out and tells him he can’t mess his job up for him and just need to

suck it up. This also creates a stereotype that they get violent and very angry on something that

really doesn’t impact on their life.

Nathan McCall gives an us an example of why African Americans don’t get ahead in life

with the song, “N****s for life”. He gives us an example with this song explaining on why rap

has such a huge influence in an African American’s life. For example, he refers to this one line, “

A young brother, who dont give a f**** about another”. This is an example of a dog eats dog

world. In a dog eats dog world, nobody helps eachother out. And when nobody helps each other

out it’s a world where only the best survive. Most likely in a white dominated society people are

helping and working with each other to get ahead. So therefore, they overpass the looks on a

community who help each other and work together but instead they live ina world where only the

strong survive. While a white dominated community notice them getting ahead in life, and look
at African Americans not, they stereotype them as being lower than them. When they create this

stereotypical aspect on blacks they start thinking the worst on them.

As I proposed all these reasons for why African Americans not being able to get ahead in

the American dream, African Americans still seem to be stereotyped and not seem as just the

same to others. Hopefully this paper has successfully explained the reasons on why African

Americans have a hard time achieving the American dream.

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