Reflections+on+Broken+Bootstraps

The American dream revolves around the notion that anyone, black or white, rich or poor, can "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and achieve wealth and power. But how can true can this be when so many of the youth of the lower class are not receiving an education substantial enough to propel them into high paying jobs //because// their schools were not adequately funded by those in power? And even if the public high school system were transformed, a diploma can only get one so far. Dreams of becoming doctors and lawyers come with an expensive price tag. When we look at the reality of the class situation in our country, the concept of hierarchal fluidity vanishes. The people of the lower class are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, one handed down through the generations. They are //caged//, pinned beneath the rich man's iron fist. And the true cruelty of it is that because of the proliferation of the American Dream, many cannot see how they are trapped, continually dreaming of a better life that wealthy have insured they will never have.

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