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Gina Hull

Ms.Price

English 1 Honors

3/20/19

There were many effects that prevented minorities to acquire the stereotypical “American

Dream” that by self definition refers to everyone having equal opportunity and equal rights no

matter what minority they fall into. Adding to the reasoning of prevention due to race

discrimination that blacks should not get the same pay as whites or blacks should be stereotyped

by officers or a society just by where they live. Sexism within communities affects the process of

obtaining equal opportunities within a workplace, educational facilities and courtrooms. Averting

adolescents from being able to build a future in America.

Stopping people from achieving equality in a society has been happening since 1619

when slavery started. But since then it has moved forward to modern mankind, that consists of

racial bias within the banks. Over the years blacks have been fighting for equal pay, but nothing

has happened. According to a Ben and Jerry’s article titled “7 ways we know systematic racism

is real” ,it states “white families hold 90% of the national wealth, Latino families hold 2.3%, and

black families hold 2.6%. Not only that, the Great Recession hit minority families particularly

hard, and the wealth gap has increased.’’ This supports the facts that wealth gaps do exist and

they are helping create poverty within the less wealthy minorities, because of poverty it shortens

the stick of being able to get that ideal American dream if they are already fighting the poverty

race. Another statement by Ben and Jerry’s-”7 ways we know systematic racism is real” shares
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with readers that “job applicants with white-sounding names get called back about 50% more of

the time than applicants with black-sounding names, even when they have identical resumes.’’

all around making it harder for social groups to get jobs and earn money to buy into the

‘’American Dream” lifestyle.

One of the biggest preventions of minors getting equal rights is, the fact that they are not

getting the rights they deserve in the court of law and within personal income. A statement by

VOX article titled, ‘’There are huge racial disparities in how US police use force’’ By German

Lopez mentions that ‘’Black people are much more likely to be shot by police than their white

peers’’ this is true from support of another study by NBC News that reads ‘’​African-Americans

died at the hands of police at a rate of 7.2 per million, while whites are killed at a rate of 2.9 per

million.’’ this information tells the police are killing more minorities due to racial bias denying

some blacks the life to obtain the American dream. The same VOX article written by German

Lopez also says “the higher crime rates in black communities only explained about 61 to 80

percent of black overrepresentation in prisons. This means that up to 39 percent of the racially

disparate rate of imprisonment is attributable to other factors, including, potentially, racial bias or

past criminal records influencing a prison sentence.’’ This revels that racial bias is such an issue

in America that there are people getting killed. Also many convicts are getting conflicted prison

records and sentences that are being altered due to judges and police officers discriminating

against an outcome of someone's life due to just them being black or another minorities such as

being Latina or Russian. So even if the convicted did do the crime it is would not give them an

exactly fair trial. Thus allowing those people to fall into the prison system, or stereotypes that
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make it hard for them to get out off to achieve the equal opportunity aspect of the American

Dream theory.

Did you know that ​Almost 2,000 High Schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of

their students. In fact over half are black youth. Yes, it is correct; in fact a Ben and Jerry's wrote

about this on the article “7 ways we know systematic racism is real’’. It convase the

quote,‘’​black students are three times more likely to be suspended than white students, even

when their infractions are similar.’’ This assists that the American Dream is made for everyone

and that includes kids. How can people of America acquire equal opportunity when kids can’t

even get it within schools. Racial segregation doesn't just affect the youth with in school it also

affects them when they go to buy their definition of an American dream home. They get stopped.

When it comes to buying homes a statistic shows that ‘’people of color are told about and shown

fewer homes and apartments than whites. Black ownership is now at an all-time low (42%,

compared to 72% for whites).’’(Ben and Jerry’s article titled “7 ways we know systematic

racism is real”) thus denying minors to get that dream house when there older. Forcing them to

be group together in so called “black Communities” when in reality that is what they were left

with having. In conclusion stopping minorities from getting education and and jobs can

ultimately affect future generations.

In conclusion the American dream is supposed to be about equal opportunity and equal

rights no matter what minority,stereotype ,or community someone may fit into they should be

allowed those rights, but as facts have proven racial bias and racial discrimination within

workplaces, schools and other faculties have made it difficult for kids as much as adults to

acquire that American Dream. Since the ideal dream has been about a picket fence,
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equal-opportunity a good job with money in the bank with good paying income with no pay gaps

then the human race should realize that the american dream should not encourage racism into it.
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Work cited

German Lopez-’There Are Huge Racial Disparitys in How US Police Use

Force’​https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/8/13/17938186/police-shootings-killings-raci

sm-racial-disparities​ -acsessed on ​Nov 14, 2018

Ben and Jerry- “7 Ways we know systimatic racism is real”

https://www.benjerry.com/home/whats-new/2016/systemic-racism-is-real

Raina Nelson- AAU-”Black Women and Pay Gap’’- issue (Economic

Security)-​https://www.aauw.org/article/black-women-and-the-pay-gap/ - Accesed on

August 01, 2018

History.comeditors-’’Littlerocknine’’-2010-​https://www.history.com/topics/black

-history/central-high-school-integration​ Acessed in 2019