It was all a dream

Today I had the opportunity to present at the UNCC Writing Project's Summer Institute and it felt great to be back in a setting with educators and writers that think outside the box of traditional teaching.  The energy in the room was intense in a creative and introspective way.  Last year when I was a participant the group I was in was intense but with a whimsical aura.  Though the personalities are different there are two things that are consistent between this year's group and last year's group and that is an appreciation of critical literacy and an amazing level of creative genius as educators.

I had the pleasure of presenting to a critical literacy lesson entitled "The State of the American Dream."  I gained my inspiration for this lesson from my own inquiry and entanglement with an article from TIME magazine's "The Making of America Issue" (the cover is to the left).  In the magazine Jon Meacham writes a compelling article, "Keeping the Dream Alive," that gives a brief history about the development of the idea that has become a cornerstone of "Americana".   Meacham starts the article by stating that "The American Dream has seen better days-much better."  He goes on to say that "The widening gap between rich and poor suggests the Dream is becoming more elusive for more people than at any other time in our history."  These two statements sparked a fury in me that I have not felt since I was a seminary student at ITC studying the history of the Black Church and its role as a safe harbor and liberating force for African Americans during slavery, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights eras.  My fury was not with Meacham but with the fact that the "American Dream" for me and many Americans, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and zip code has been at best a myth or a tune seductively played by the pied piper to control and manipulate the masses.  As I wrestled internally with this fury I immediately thought about the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) a.k.a. Obamacare into legislation two weeks ago.  President Obama has continuously stated that in order to salvage the American Dream and restore the middle class universal affordable healthcare had to be passed.  Below is a video from Youtube that I used in my presentation that sums up his beliefs and persistence in getting the PPACA passed into legislation (click on the video below)


My mind was wrestling with how "Obamacare" was connected with the "American Dream" so I went back to Meachem's article and begin to review how the idea of the "American Dream" was developed.  The historian James Truslow Adams has been identified as the individual who came up with the concept of "that American dream of a better, richer, and happier life for all citizens of every rank..."  Adams went as far to say the the American Dream "is the greatest contribution we have as yet made to the thought and welfare of the world." Whoa, that is a loaded statement in hindsight!!!   I wonder if Adams was associating Capitalism with the American Dream?  Did he know that the puppeteers of American Nationalism would make Capitalism and the "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality to the Dream?  I mean the  way the American Dream has been espoused to me is that through hard work, grit, determination, and persistence I will be prosperous and have a better life.  In fact I will have a wife and together we will produce 2.5 kids, live in a colonial house with a white picket fence, have 1.5 dogs and live in Mr. Roger's neighborhood!  Interestingly enough growing up I did not know what the American Dream was but I can clearly see how it influenced my parents and how they raised me with the belief that education was not an option and college graduation was the standard.  Even looking at my grandparents they established the principle of working hard and being self reliant as a mandatory component of my character.  I honestly did not become conscious of the American Dream until I was in college at Florida State University.  My first history class during the summer of 97 my professor talked about the "Birth of a nation" and how America was founded.  During that summer I gained a different perspective on what was important to the founders of America.  My perception of this dream became jaded when I took my first African-American History course during my sophomore year.  I remember my professor, a white man to my surprise, coming in the class and acknowledging that to the 50-60  of us sitting in the class that we may be shocking to see white man teaching a African-American History course.  His words will forever be etched in my memory!  He said, "who better to teach you about African-American history and how America oppressed the descendants of Africa that an oppressor?  My entire life I have benefited from oppression and studied its pervasiveness in our society."  At that moment I decided that maybe I will not drop this class after all.

From that point I have been on a journey of self-discovery, awareness, consciousness, anger and resentment, and activism.  I can honestly I became a educator to push students toward the American Dream; hence why I joined Teach For America in 2009 with it's lofty ideals that "One day all children will have access to a equal education."  All the while I have been internally wanting to say to my students don't drink the kool-aid!  Or don't get caught sleeping and believe that the dream is true!  So badly I've wanted to be like Laurence Fishburne at the end of Spike Lee's movie School Daze and yell "WAKE UP"!!! (here is the clip if you haven't seen it)


Even working at a college preparatory school I still find myself wanting to tell my students in the words of Public Enemy, "Don't believe the hype"!  However, there is a still apart of me that so desperately hopes like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did when he delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech that America will one day live out it's creed which is "deeply rooted in the American Dream."  It is that hope that has pushed me beyond my years of anger and resentment to be my better self try my best to be an agent of change not just a person of resistance or stagnation.

Returning to my dilemma of seeing the connection of the PPACA (Obamacare) and the American Dream.  I still wrestling with whether the PPACA is a conception of the American Dream or a misconception of the Dream.  The socialist and christian within me see Obamacare in some in some regards reminding me of the church in Acts when they brought all there resources together to ensure that all people within the "Church" had their needs met.  However, my "hermeneutic of suspicion" will not allow me to question the motives of the establishment, oops I mean the government when they get involved with anything!!!  It is the argument of when is there too much government or not enough government involvement.  As I bring this blog to an end I can't help but here some of the lyrics of Hip-Hop artist past and present ringing in my ear in regards to the American Dream:

"It was all a Dream,..." - Juicy by the Notorious BIG aka Biggie Smalls
"It seems we chasing the American Dream, the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem..." - All Falls Down by Kanye West

I Googled Hip-Hop songs that speak about the American Dream and came across this blog on rhapsody.  As usual music has a way of developing a soundtrack that best expresses the thoughts we are wrestling with. Read the blog below and listen to the soundtrack...is it all a dream or a delayed reality?
http://blog.rhapsody.com/hiphop/2010/02/pursuing-the-american-dream.html