The Power of the "American Dream"

I was reminded of an article I read last week when reading this week's reading, "As Canadian As Possible" when considering how the fantasized "American Dream" has come to affect cultures around the world. For hundreds of years, individuals have migrated to the United States in search of a better life, for the popularized ideology of the American Dream and the belief that it does indeed exist. 

In this video, Alexis Gonzalez speaks of how he trekked from Honduras, across Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of reaching the United States, however, he never made it to his destination.

As the article title suggests, in this young boys tragic case, the American Dream he has seen in media and movies and heard about for years actually cost him more pain and loss than anything hopeful and promising that supposedly the American Dream could give him. 

So I have to wonder, how does this presentation and depiction of the American Dream across all mediated facets we broadcast worldwide impact the billions of people who wish they could have it? Especially when, I have to wonder, if the American Dream they dream about even exists in our culture today.

Like this popular track, American Dream, says in it's lyrics, "The world is spinning too fast for you and me. So tell me whatever happened to the American Dream;" the world is ever changing and cultures around the world are changing with it.
In considering all of this I wonder, when migrants do make it to the United States, and they find that the American Dream isn't what they believed it to be, how is that even far? Like the scholarly article "Dreams of America, American Dreams" explains, children like Gonzalez have a terribly hard time becoming accustomed to life in America. The problem is, no one ever told any of the migrants this. They have so much hope for a better life and risk their lives in search of it, but unfortunately may never find it.

Roxas, Kevin. 2008. "WHO DARES TO DREAM THE AMERICAN DREAM?" Multicultural Education 16 (2): 2-9. http://ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216525245?accountid=13584.

Homeless Complexity: Understanding and Challenging Previous Acceptance

The truth is, the homeless problem is not seen as a social problem, nor as a complex problem, or as a problem that needs to be challenged. Quite conversely, homelessness has become a social problem most Americans have come to accept as normal, as a part of today's society that cannot be fixed.
 

An unknown graffiti artist, calling himself Skid Robot has begun painting similar scenes as the one above all throughout skid row in Los Angeles in recent months. Whether the murals are detailed like the one above, or simple such as the one below,  they are intended to challenge public acceptance of the homeless, and more vastly, address homelessness as a social problem. Research done in 2013 by Peter Sommerville suggests that homelessness is an issue that is not easily classified or categorized, instead Sommerville explains, it is a "multidimensional" problem. Sommerville explains through his research that homelessness has come to be distorted, ignored, and what he refers to as "social fact". Homelessness has become accepted in our culture as something we cannot change, and furthermore, as a stigmatized and dehumanized generalization for an entire group of individuals. Artists such as Skid Robot challenge this, however Sommerville's research suggest that there are not enough people challenging public consensus of the homeless population. And finally, Sommerville suggests, that were we, as a culture, able to understand the stories and realities of those experiencing homelessness, we may better understand it for what it truly is: a social problem that needs support and advocacy. This theory echoes that of my own participants' ideas throughout my focus group interviews. "We need to direct contact with homelessness" one of my participants explained, "if never directly interacting with homeless people, [we] would just understand it as we see it portrayed in media or hearsay." In order to understand homelessness and finally challenge it's existence throughout our communities we must all overcome previous social stigma's, accepted stereotypes and ideologies associated with the problem and begin to listen to the voice of those truly living in homelessness. 

Sommerville, Peter. "Understanding Homelessness" Housing, Theory, and Society 30, no.4 (2013) 384. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14036096.2012.756096#abstract

Stigmatization: Homelessness as a Social Problem

In John Belcher and Bruce DeForge's 2012 study on Social Stigma and homelessness, the association between stigmatization and capitalism has brought to light overwhelming research that best describes homelessness as one of America's biggest social problems. While it is true that many homeless advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations press forward in the fight to end homelessness, the unfortunate truth is that American media has painted homelessness in a predominately negative light, leaving the primary view of homeless individuals stigmatized by American's nationwide. 
Following my two focus group interviews, in which I showed the video below, Human, by Rethink Homelessness, my research exposed the disheartening truth that Social Stigma against the homeless has indeed tainted the views and understanding of homelessness by most.

In closing conversation following my participant's viewing of this YouTube video, almost all of my participants said something along the lines of 'the video is touching, but does not come close to explaining the complexity, cyclical problem that homelessness is'. A direct statement made was that unfortunately, because of the stigmatized idea previously engrained in American's minds, while in the moment, a video such as these may impact an individual, pull on the heart strings and make one reconsider the severity and complexity of homelessness, "five minutes later, you will forget". In such a fast paced society, we as capitalistic Americans, separated distinctly by economic factors and class, may, in a way not want to solve homelessness. For in a society in which there must always be winners and losers to maintain the status quo, who would ever want to give the "losers" a hand up, if that meant an equal playing field, or what's worse? Maybe you lose your status as a winner and sink to the bottom; the unequal distribution of wealth in America perpetuates social stigma against the homeless because the American Dream never said anything about helping anybody else out, it's either get rich or die trying in today's society. We have to have some excuse for such inhumane actions that prove our capitalist behavior to be so greedy and selfish. That excuse has been stigmatizing an entire group of people because instead of challenging homelessness, we as a culture have decided to accept it (Belcher and DeForge 2012, 930). In accepting it, if we can see the homeless as evil, as bums, drunks, and oh so dangerous individuals, well what choice do we have but to stigmatize them? And on lives a social construction of ideology based on discrimination, and stigmatization; one of America's greatest social problems, Homeless misrepresentation. 

Belcher, John R. and Bruce R. DeForge. "Social Stigma and Homelessness: The Limits of Social Change." Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 22, no. 8 (2012): 929. http://ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1197624992?accountid=13584.