Prejudice And Discrimination In James Adams 'American Dream'

The American Dream, a term coined by James Adams in his 1931 book The Epic of America, refers to the principle that in the bastion of freedom that America offers, almost all can succeed in spite of race, gender, or country of origin. Recently, however, many have argued that the American Dream is dead - that any hopes of success through hard work are doomed to fail - and that in America, you will remain where you are born economically. Nevertheless, the American Dream still exists, and although some maintain that it is principally engendered to suppress women and geared to discriminate against non-whites, in today’s day and age, it is, in fact, accessible to almost all who live in America and have the desire to succeed.

Success in America is almost indeterminate of race. That is not to say that racism in America doesn’t exist - it obviously does - but to suggest that there is no ultimate power in America dictating that non-whites will be subjected to discrimination and consequently never succeed in America. That is to say, in addition, that despite the color of someone’s skin, they are just as likely to succeed as a white person

Some argue that women in America earn only 77% of what men do, dubbed the “wage gap”. This notion, however, is fallacious and stems from a hasty generalization. In America, women earn the same as men, as guaranteed by The Equal Pay Act of 1963, which bars employers from paying women or men less than their counterparts. The gender wage gap fails to realize traditional differences in the distribution of jobs between the sexes, but rather takes earnings in aggregate. There are two things wrong with this line of reasoning: areas of higher earning are traditionally majority men, and women tend to take time off to care for children, impacting earnings. In any given domain and company, women and men with the same experience and merit earn the same in almost all