| Description |
1 online resource (264 pages) |
| Contents |
The wealth gap and the American dream -- Meritocracy and "good" schools -- Buying in and opting out -- Making do and feeling stuck -- Wealth privilege -- Inequality and ideology -- An unresolved conflict |
| Summary |
The American Dream and the Power of Wealth investigates the way that wealth (rather than income) structures educational opportunity in the United States. Furthermore, it shows the way that educational opportunity-the bedrock upon which our pervasive ideology of meritocracy or, in Johnson's terms, "the American Dream" is founded-structures the racial class system in the United States. She accomplishes this by analyzing an impressive store of qualitative and quantitative research on three cities: Boston, Los Angeles, and St. Louis. The meritocratic ideology is riddled with contradictions due to the massive and growing wealth disparity between blacks and whites, in particular. Everyone wants the best for their children, but access to assets is what allows wealthy people to either send their children to private school or buy expensive homes in neighborhoods with good public schools. In this equation, income doesn't matter so much, but wealth-which is typically inherited-does. Not surprisingly, black Americans, who on average have far less wealth than white Americans, are often unable to attend the best schools. And since educational attainment is the root of our alleged meritocracy, whites disproportionately dominate it-and families with wealth, even when they recognize the meritocracy as a problem, don't opt out of the system that has successfully reproduced itself for decades. Essentially, the meritocratic ideology of the American Dream continues to cast a powerful spell, and people who stand to benefit will participate in it regardless of the social issues involved |
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Despite the overwhelming evidence against them, many people still believe they can overcome the economic and racial constraints placed upon them at birth. In the first edition, Heather Beth Johnson explored this belief in the American Dream with over 200 in-depth interviews with black and white families, highlighting the ever-increasing racial wealth gap and the actual inequality in opportunities. This second edition has been updated to make it fully relevant to today's reader, with new data and illustrative examples, including twenty new interviews. Johnson asks not just what parents are thin |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Wealth -- United States
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Educational equalization -- United States
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Equality -- United States
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- Macroeconomics.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Economic Conditions.
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Economic history.
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Educational equalization.
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Equality.
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Social conditions.
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Wealth.
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| SUBJECT |
United States -- Economic conditions -- 2001-2009.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001004604
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United States -- Social conditions -- 1980-2020
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| Subject |
United States.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781317744085 |
|
131774408X |
|
9781315794297 |
|
1315794292 |
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9781317744061 |
|
1317744063 |
|
9781317744078 |
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1317744071 |
|
