Something I found particularly interesting from this reading was Marpessa’s assertion that white people fear having their “piece of the American Dream” stolen by a black person. This notion made me think about the current political climate. The way Marpessa describes the American Dream here seems to be in alignment with a lot of what is said today that helped Trump get elected: a major reason that a lot of Trump supporters want to tighten the reins on immigration as well as bring jobs back to America is because they think that opportunities that are rightfully theirs are being taken away. In this sense, they too fear their piece of the American Dream is being stolen from them by someone they view as less deserving. This view is also completely opposite from what we read from MLK, who said that no one’s American Dream can truly be attained without everyone’s being attained. Whose version do you all agree with more? Why?
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Interesting point Katie. While I can see how many Trump supporters may feel like they are forgotten by the current system and the anti-immigration sentiment that you outlined (though I hate to generalize so broadly) I tend to agree more with MLK’s vision of America. Your post also made me think of an important passage that we didn’t get to discuss today in class – the chapter “City Lites: An Interlude” which details the narrator’s quest to find a sister city for Dickens through Sister City Global. I think this interlude from the narrative is very important especially in relationship to your post as Beatty purposefully choose the sister city to be the “Lost City of White Male Privilege.” As a white male this passage also made me reflect on the role of privilege in my own life.