Blog 3: Just Dreamin'?

            I was initially very confused about the connection between the first three pieces and the last video—until I saw what the topic was: “Just Dreamin’”. Ah, now it all makes sense. Between the first three media, I saw a connection with race, or in this case racial minority. Also, the topic of rich versus poor is seen in these pieces as well. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza wants to escape her poor, small, red house, not necessarily to be rich, but to be on her own in her own home. That is her dream. And then in the New York Times article, I linked the connection with minority race (or races) and the poor trying to succeed in their goals—in this case three girls making it through college. That article was very frustrating to read as someone who relies on scholarships and financial aid myself. And then in the Chris Rock video, Chris tries to get a wealthy neighborhood to change one of their main boulevards to ‘Tupac Shakur Blvd.’ who was an African American rapper. From what I saw, Chris mainly asked white and possibly some middle to upper class people to sign the petition. Many of them completely rejected him, some laughed, and some also agreed to sign his petition.

            So far, in all of these pieces we see similar dreams to escape poverty despite race or current class; and then there is Chris Rock trying to move Tupac up into a class all his own. But still moving forward. And if it had stopped here, I would have expected the next piece to be the song “Movin’ on Up” by Ja’net Dubois (because of the lyrics and the relation to race in the themed show “The Jeffersons”). But no, we get Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends”. A young, white, possibly lower class couple in which the boyfriend goes off to war. From what the boyfriend says in the video, it seems a possibility that he agreed to go to war to support the couple financially. Whether or not that is true, that is my guess for the relationship between the video and the other pieces.

            There are correlations here between class and succeeding in school, class and race, and the difficulty of “moving on up” in class, just within these three pieces. The struggle to achieve dreams seems to be more difficult the lower the class one is, and even more difficult when combining lower class with a minority race.

            However, in contrary to all of this and despite hurdles based on race or class, the people in these pieces make attempts to overcome these challenges. We never truly find out if the people in these stories “succeed” or fail, but that also depends on each person’s definition of success. The girls in the NY Times article may have seen just getting into college as a success. It all depends on the individual and what their dreams are. Some may achieve those dreams, some may have changed their dreams, and some may still be striving towards those dreams. It is all a matter of perspective. There will always be difficulties, especially when it comes to race and/or class, but it shouldn’t stop those from reaching for their dreams. Very inspirational.