Kevin Jennings American Dream

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Adrian Cadiz Anthony Hinckley Writing 101 2/26/2018 The Slippery-Slope of False Dreams In the essay American Dreams, Kevin Jennings believes his American dream is impossible to achieve as society’s injustices and prejudices demoralized his sexuality and identity. Growing up in a rural community of Lewisville, North Carolina, Kevin Jennings came from poor beginnings. He descended from poor white confederates. After his father’s demise, Jennings’ life became more miserable. His mother, having limited credentials and worked only at McDonald’s, took care of him. Inspired by his workaholic mother, Kevin’s sheer determination and hard work propelled him to earn a scholarship at Harvard University. At Harvard, he experienced injustices of life. He …show more content…

You might see them roaming around the street or in school. It might be the person you know or someone you love. Research shows in United States about 10 million Americans — or 4.1 percent of the U.S. population — are identified as LGBT in 2016. (Brown, 2017) These statistics show the demographics of homosexuals in the US, not including persons who still have a hard time confessing their sexuality or those who want to keep their sexuality confidential. Homosexuals, which includes gays and lesbians, are persons sexually attracted to the people of the same sex. Jennings was on the verge of achieving his American dreams. He knew that he was gay since he was young. Although he worked hard to fulfill his American dreams, he realized that his sexual orientation is not beneficial to it. Jennings believed that his determination and hard work will give him the edge to reach the peak of his American dream. However, his belief is crushed when he realized his homosexuality is a social …show more content…

These prejudices and discriminations are the results of apathy, ignorance and misinformation. Education on sexuality needs to be properly taught to adults and teenagers. Adults need to provide positive and correct information about homosexuality to the teenagers who are the future of our nation. In that way, lessons learned by the youth will be passed from generation to generation. Homosexuals have rights and liberty to live freely and pursuit of happiness. They should not be deprived from obtaining privileges. We should stand together in creating a friendly and diverse environment that accepts not only heterosexuals but also homosexuals. In such way, freedom for them will be achieved. As Jennings stated, “Real freedom will be ours when the people around us— and when we ourselves— accepts that we, too, are “real” Americans and that we shouldn’t change to meet anyone else’s standards.” (Jennings.) Jennings let go of his American dream for it was absurd and false, but he was able to accomplish a bigger dream, and that was accepting

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