The Myth Of The American Dream Essay

, Research Paper

Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality

Paper #1

To many people the phrase American culture represents a set of positive values and beliefs that would be held by any benevolent citizen. In an ideal society this would indeed be the case, however the phrase actually represents a set of values and beliefs that are imposed, reinforced, and become dominant. These beliefs are often presented as being valid when they are actually based on the distortion and manipulation of the truth. Dominant American culture is imposed by various means such as our families, schools, government, and possibly most often by the mass media. Although it is important to realize that cultural values and beliefs are not necessarily positive, it must be noted that they are not necessarily negative either. To discover if a dominant cultural belief is in fact sound, one must examine it critically. To do this is to look at where the belief originated, why it has been reinforced, and who is benefiting from its continuance. In the readings by Rubin, and Ore several dominant cultural values are investigated and an upsetting connection is found. On the foundation of actual experiences, the authors show how a number of dominant beliefs are presented as truth but in reality serve to promote the welfare of those in power and in control of resources.

When identifying dominant cultural beliefs, perhaps the first one that comes to mind is the idea of the American dream. To many the American dream is in fact the essence of America. The idea that anyone can be anything they put their mind to is the basis for America being known as the land of opportunity. Upon inspection however, its apparent that America is far from an Egalitarian society where all have equal access to power and natural resources. In a society where there was equal access to resources one would expect to see an equal distribution of wealth. America however has the most unequal distribution of wealth of any industrialized nation. Here the top 1 percent of households controls the same percentage of the nation’s income as the bottom 90 percent of households (Ore: 81). If in truth America represents a society that obviously restricts opportunity to a small number of people, why has the idea of the American dream been reinforced for so long?

To answer this question, it is important to first identify where most of this reinforcement takes place. In this case, the media is largely responsible for supporting the myth of equal opportunity in America. The support comes in the form of distorted media coverage of the poor and inaccurate portrayals of the wealthy. One of the ways the media distorts the facts about distribution of resources is by deceiving the public into thinking that it is common to be wealthy. Even though they make up an incredibly small percentage of the population, the affairs of the wealthy are most often the focus of the media. By presenting these issues as the most common, the American public is led to believe that the “concerns of the wealthy are the concerns of us all”(Ore: 75).

Another way in which false values been supported by the media is evident in its terribly inaccurate presentation of poverty in this country. On the rare occasion that the poor are the focus of the media, they are portrayed as a small percentage of the population that is responsible for creating financial problems for the middle class. Rather than examine the tremendous barriers that serve to keep the poor from attaining financial success, we are trained to see them as a burden on those who have already achieved financial success. This is where the myth of the American dream once again comes into play. If we are in a country where all have equal opportunity, then the poor are considered to be wholly responsible for their situation. Problems such as crime, drug and alcohol abuse, lack of education, and reliance on welfare are represented as the causes of poverty rather than the effects of it. The poor may also affected by this misrepresentation by believing themselves that they are part of a minority group that should only be concerned with becoming part of this immense and prestigious middle class. The truth is “working class families are the single largest group of families in the country. These are the men and women, by far the largest part of the American work force”(Rubin: 30). If in fact the working class makes up the largest section of the population, it is necessary to explain why they are represented as a troublesome minority.

The continuance of myths like these serves to benefit only those who already have access to wealth and resources. It should come as no surprise then that “unlike other cultural institutions, ownership and control of the mass media is highly concentrated. Twenty-three corporations own more than one-half of all the daily newspapers, magazines, movies studios, and radio and television outlets in the United States”(Ore: 71). When the wealthy are identified as having so much control over the media it is easy to recognize how the myths it promotes serve to keep the working class divided and thus unable to initiate social change.

In addition to prolonging the myth of equal opportunity, the media is responsible for exploiting race differences in reference to the distribution of wealth. According to the coverage provided by the media, one would think that minority groups in