- Description
- 150 pages; 25 cm.
- Summary
- "Although the phrase "the American Dream" dates from the 1930s, the concept or idea of the American Dream is as old as the country. The values proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and reaffirmed (and extended) in the Gettysburg Address have been continuously promoted by every American president. Moreover, they form the basis of our national collective narrative as expressed through both elite and popular culture. The American Dream is intrinsically tied to the American Creed and American Exceptionalism. It is the foundation of our national identity, the glue that holds together our individual aspirations. Yet until the mid-20th century the American Dream excluded African Americans. We, as a nation-as an imagined community--could not imagine an integrated, multi-racial society with Blacks and Whites living together as equals. By examining the lives of the only three African American Nobel Peace Prize winners, we can see how their lives were shaped by the American Dream and how their success was used to deny the structural racism that prevented others from achieving the American Dream. Ralph Bunche as a role model of academic and technical expertise, Martin Luther King, Jr., as a model race leader, and Barack Obama as political leader provide a window on the changing meaning of the American Dream. In concluding, Haiti is presented as a failed example of an attempt to export the American Dream in the form of American Exceptionalism and racial reparations are reimagined as a radical democratic project aimed at true global integration and justice"--
- Series Statement
- Routledge research in race and ethnicity
- Uniform Title
- Routledge research in race and ethnicity.
- Alternative Title
- Peace-maker, the prophet and the politician
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Ralph Bunche : a worldview of race -- King's dream -- Barack Obama : reclaiming the American dream -- American exceptionalism : the American dream exported -- Reimagining racial reparations.
- ISBN
- 9781032404660
- 1032404663
- 9781032404653
- 1032404655
- 9781003353218 (canceled/invalid)
- LCCN
- 2023015671
- OCLC
- YBP 2023015671
- Author
Henry, Charles P., 1947- author.
- Title
Racial imagination and the American dream : the peace-maker, the prophet and the politician / Charles P. Henry.
- Publisher
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2024.
- Copyright Date
©2024
- Type of Content
text
- Type of Medium
unmediated
- Type of Carrier
volume
- Series
Routledge research in race and ethnicity
Routledge research in race and ethnicity.
- Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.