# data[].attributes.body
Interview with Chris Brennan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Dream Interview for Period 8 English

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Due to housing laws and discrimination constructed in the early-mid 1900's dictating where black people could live and whether or not they could even own property, class in America is heavily stratified based on race. There are people that make jokes and remarks about black people being impoverished, whilst completely ignoring that the reason their racist jokes exist; or the reason that many black people are heavily impoverished, is due to racism.

The so-called "American dream" of suburbia spurred from racism. Now, you might be wondering how the famous "American Dream" life can have any correlation with racism.

Let me explain,back when suburbs were first being created, it was illegal for black people to own property.

There were all of these white picket fence neighborhoods filled with white people and when a black family tried to rent one of the homes (since they were not able to own), property value in that neighborhood dropped.

Housing discrimination is actually one of the biggest secrets of America's history. Just think about it. When have you ever actually learned about this in school? About how it was against the law for black people to get loans, own property, apply for mortgages or own the actual deed to their homes? There were entire neighborhoods that had signs posted outside of them saying "whites only"; and this was as late as the 1970's! Then we get into what is called " redlining " in housing districts, something that is still going on today wherein neighborhoods that are highly segregated by race (i/e neighborhoods that are predominantly black or latino) have a severe lack in supermarkets, healthcare services, and other necessities due to racial segregation.

So, it's very clear that upon looking at classism and racism, the two intersect so heavily that the systems pretty much fuel each other. Did you know that crack cocaine has heavier sentencing attached to it than powdered cocaine? Did you know that crack cocaine is more often found in neighborhoods that are more impoverished; have heavier populations of people of color whilst powdered cocaine, which has lighter prison sentencing, is most often found in affluent neighborhoods; neighborhoods that are white?

It's facts like these that fight the whole 'reverse racism' garbage and show how systems of oppression intersect so heavily, that we barely even think twice about them anymore due to how heavily ingrained in society they are.

Let's take a look at how many people stereotype people of color (especially black people) as poor, living in 'the ghettos' and in run-down neighborhoods. Then, let's remember that white people literally forced them into those situations.
Welcome to racism in America!

Comments

comments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Racism Influenced The So-Called "American Dream"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Due to housing laws and discrimination constructed in the early-mid 1900's dictating where black people could live and whether or not they could even own property, class in America is heavily stratified based on race.

# data[].attributes.headline
Article disussing how poverty, crime rates, racism, etc prevent minorities from achieving dreams

# data[].attributes.subject
Article disussing how poverty, crime rates, racism, etc prevent minorities from achieving dreams

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Obscured by incessant chatter about the credit rating and national debt is the sad reality of poverty and hunger in America. At the root of these issues is the ugly legacy of racism and the failure to recognize white privilege. Some will argue, with justification, that many white Americans are suffering these days too. But those problems are not the consequences of systematic oppression. To acknowledge white poverty does not absolve us of our responsibility to address racism. Here's part of my family story:

The small house at the corner of 89th and South May in Chicago has seen better days. Surrounded by a patchwork quilt of tired houses and vacant, weed-choked lots, at least it's still standing. A few nearby houses are freshly painted with tidy lawns, proudly refusing to succumb to the neglect trying to swallow the neighborhood.

This entire South Side Chicago neighborhood has seen better days. As in so many urban pockets across America, unemployment is epidemic, municipal services are spotty and all the faces are black or brown. According to the Chicago Urban League, real unemployment in this community may be as much as double the "official" rate of 21.9%. The Urban League also reports that, in one neighborhood, 70% of young black men are in prison or ex-offenders, many for minor drug offenses. Try competing for a job with those credentials.

There isn't much hope for neighborhoods like this. In the post-racial world invented by political conservatives, the problem with most poor folks is that they just don't try hard enough. This is particularly true for poor folks of color, for whom the most demeaning epithets are reserved: Shiftless, unmotivated, irresponsible parent, welfare queen, etc., etc. America is a great meritocracy, conservatives claim. Racism was yesteryear's problem so help won't be coming soon.

These attitudes are often accompanied by rags-to-riches or up-by-the-bootstraps stories. The most vehement resistance to social programs seems to come from those whose immigrant ancestors made their way out of poverty through hard work and sacrifice -- the American Dream. "If my grandparents could do it, why can't those folks?" they ask.

My grandfather did it.

John Rinkema was born and raised in Holland and came to Chicago in the early 1920s, seeking a better life for his young family. John was unsuccessful finding a job at first. Noticing that a great deal of construction was going on, he bought a toolbox and a set of tools and combed the neighborhood looking for work. A genial foreman, after taking him on, watched with good humor as John tried to figure out which end of the hammer to use. He learned.

John worked hard, honed his skills, and pulled hard on the bootstraps he was given. For several years he built houses, moving his growing family into a house while it was under construction, providing shelter until the home was completed and sold. By then, if his timing was good, the next house was habitable (barely) and the family would move again.

There were bumps in the road. Deflated by the Great Depression, John, like many others, used Prohibition as a safety net. He rented a bigger house in a more prosperous neighborhood and distilled large quantities of moonshine in the basement. He ended up serving a short jail sentence after discovering, too late, that a mob lieutenant lived across the road. In those days the police often served as enforcement agents for Al Capone's gang. Capone's boys didn't like the competition, but at least they didn't kill him. Fortunately, white men distilling thousands of gallons of illegal liquor in the '20s didn't suffer stiff penalties like those conferred in more recent decades on black men who possessed a few grams of cocaine.

I am the beneficiary of John Rinkema's hard work and his good luck. My mother was well educated and met my father, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, at a rooming house John owned through his hard work. My father benefitted from a similar immigrant story and together my parents made a solid, middle-class life -- a platform from which my siblings and I had a plate full of opportunity to seize or squander. I did some of each.

Only in recent years have I fully recognized the deep flaws of the post-racial myth and the equally deep roots of my own white privilege. Equal opportunity has been a mirage for generations of black women and men. For several centuries in America, the law didn't even recognize the humanity of people of color, much less allow them to vote or own property. Even after emancipation, skin color served as a stern gatekeeper, limiting access to everything from housing, education and employment to the lines of credit that fueled the rise to prosperity for my grandfather and millions of white immigrants.

Around the time my grandfather came through Ellis Island, tens of thousands of black folks were fleeing the South for Chicago. They had no social or economic capital and, sadly and ironically, arrived to find a new set of racial barriers. By the 1920s strict racial covenants limited housing choice for blacks. Employers, most of whom were white European immigrants, were not so benevolent when it came to unskilled black men fresh from the Deep South.

Through the middle of the 20th century a thriving black community took root in parts of Chicago, but the gains were not sustained. The civil rights movement of the 1960s finally delegitimized racism, but attitudes are much harder to change than the law. After several decades of progress and hope, America's cities now look worse than they did before Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed. Neighborhoods and schools are sharply segregated and poverty in black communities is lethal.

As you may have guessed, my grandfather built that small house at 89th and South May and my mother lived in it for a short time. It was the beginning of a journey that ended with a very successful life as a general contractor in an affluent Chicago suburb.

The description of the house and neighborhood came from my younger brother, who visited the corner several years ago. He knocked on the door of the house. A young boy opened the door with wary curiosity. The interior was oddly dark for midday. The boy said his mother couldn't come to the door because she was "coming down" from whatever substance she used to numb herself.

The corner of 89th and South May is the crossroads of America, where opportunity began for some and ended for others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Obscured by incessant chatter about the credit rating and national debt is the sad reality of poverty and hunger in America. At the root of these issues is the ugly legacy of racism and the failure to recognize white privilege. Some will argue, with justification, that many white Americans are suffering these days too.

# data[].attributes.headline
A piece of street art illustrating how many people feel they are unable to achieve their dreams due to outside factors. 

# data[].attributes.subject
A piece of street art illustrating how many people feel they are unable to achieve their dreams due to outside factors. 