Daniel Liu, Period 6, 10/14/2022

Socio-political Consciousness

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

The American Dream. The ideals of democracy, liberty, equality, and the opportunity for all to be successful are almost synonymous with the United States. Millions of immigrants from faraway lands leave behind everything to risk it all for a shot at this dream. But the harsh reality is that the American Dream is almost impossible for most people in America. 

The entire basis of this dream is that no matter where you come from, no matter your circumstances, you can achieve success by working hard. However, in the 21st century, this is just simply not true. The average price of a house just 50 years ago in 1970 was $27,000 (around $200,000 adjusted for inflation). In 2022, the average price is $525,000, a staggering 162.5% increase. A study conducted by Visual Capitalist shows that the average individual born in 1980 has only a 45% chance to outearn their parents, compared to 93% for an individual born in 1940. 

Not only does the average American have a harder time buying a house today, but the process of even entering the workforce and receiving higher education is biased against minorities and people with low incomes. The college application process favors the wealthy. The scores standardized tests used to measure aptitude are positively correlated with family income. 

Most first generation immigrants are also not as familiar with English grammar, which constitutes a large portion of those standardized tests.

Wealthy kids are able to access tutoring resources, and it’s much easier to do well in school when you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. Poorer kids often have both parents working full time, with little money for tutoring, and might even have to seek employment themselves. Wealthy kids have parents who attended elite universities, who donate to those universities and have legacy status. Legacy students are an astonishing 45% more likely to get into a highly selective college or university than a non-legacy. 

Wealthy families have connections to or work for established companies and hospitals. They are able to help their children find higher paying employment fresh out of an elite university. 

In contrast, a low or middle class family can barely afford to send their children to university (after taking out student loans), let alone help them find a job. 

I once believed in the American Dream, but after learning all of those facts, I realized that the American Dream is more of an American Race. In this American Race, at the starting line, the rich and powerful get a 5 second head start, and in front of the poor, there are several hurdles they have to jump over.

It’s still possible to win the race even with all those disadvantages and hurdles to overcome, but it will be significantly harder for someone like me to win. 

My parents are from China. They aren’t fluent in English, or wealthy enough to send me to tutoring. They don’t have connections to big businesses and never attended university. But they left behind their entire lives in China to risk it all for a better future in the United States. 

So although I don’t view the American Dream through rose colored glasses, I’ll still work hard to be successful. Despite the inequity of the system, I believe I can find a way to achieve the idyllic life many take for granted.

I hope that in the future, the American Dream can someday be true for all Americans. 

But first, as a society and as a country, we have to strive to ensure everyone has the opportunity to pursue happiness. 

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

I have a tendency to believe that I’m always making the right decisions, and that anything that goes wrong or any mistake I make is never entirely my fault. Sometimes in an argument with a friend, I only consider my own beliefs and perspective, and fail to understand or empathize with their point of view. It’s only after I calm down and give it some thought that I realize their opinions hold some validity as well. It can be difficult to accept that a disagreement in opinions is not a personal attack on you. I myself fall victim to this, as it feels like my pride is damaged whenever somebody says I’m wrong. I started to realize that being wrong is not always a negative thing, but a part of learning. I argued with someone recently about whether or not pickles were good. 

My strong belief that pickles were disgusting and shouldn’t be eaten was drowning out their reasoning and argument, and I refused to respect or understand their opinion. I presented them with a list of reasons on why pickles are disgusting in an attempt to change their mind. 

By automatically dismissing their opinion on pickles, and defensively trying to prove myself right, I failed to understand them. I think this shows that we should all try to put our own personal pride aside when having a disagreement with someone, and try to understand their perspective, rather than instantly shutting them down and living in an echo chamber. This applies not only to pickles, but to any opinion in life. 

Sources: “Average Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States.” FRED, 26 July 2022, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ASPUS. 

Lu, Marcus. “The Decline of Upward Mobility in One Chart.” Visual Capitalist, 25 Jan. 2021, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-decline-of-upward-mobility-in-one-chart/.