Reading Response #6

In “Lest We Think the Revolution Is a Revolution” by Cynthia Selfe claims that technology has created a general idea of what people think America is. She mentions of two narratives, “Land of Equal Opportunity” and “Land of Difference. The first narratives describes this idea of how America was a exciting land of opportunity, where it founded because of the “values of hard work and fair play” and that it was available to anyone who had any “value on innovation, individualism, and competition”. She advocates that this “Land of Equal Opportunity” of America becoming open to anyone, meaning open to all men, women, different ethnicities, class and whoever peoples connections may be. America stands for the strong faith of “traditional values” to which many people know as the America Dream. Anyone who comes to America knows of this American Dream which consist a family living in a home with the white picket fence and a two door garage. This idea of the American Dream can be achieved by hard work, playing fair and using all the opportunities that are given to person trying to achieve it. I agree with what Selfe is saying about this American Dream because of my experience with this. American has given my family and I many opportunities to succeed life here in America. It has given my parents jobs to work very hard and to provide us with many things like clothing to wear, food to eat, education, and especially a roof over our heads. Even though some tough times have hit America, they don’t let us suffer; they assist us and keep us from going homeless. Now I have taken a job to help pay for my education, expenses of a car and insurance and to keep myself afloat in this tough time by helping out my mom by doing this.

I think Cynthia Selfe is mistaken because she overlooks the bigger picture in what America has offered and the all the history behind it. The “Land of Equal Opportunity” hasn’t exactly applied to most people with the American Dream and the American culture experience has told us otherwise. Self mentions how this American Dream applies to those who work hard, fair play and utilizing the opportunities given but she forgot to point out about America’s history on slavery, deaf education, women’s suffrage, immigration, labor unions and poverty. These parts of history explain that not everyone is given equal opportunity and the people involved with our history have had it harder to get equal opportunity than others. Never before in history has America ever had a black president until Barrack Obama proved that when he entered elections and eventually became the 1st black president in history. Until he entered office, all previous presidents were white males and women are still fighting their place in office and jobs because men still don’t see that they have the right to work besides the idea of them as housewives. Immigration is still a big issue, because America is having double standards on deciding who can enter America when they want people here from anywhere else. It has been hard for many people especially Hispanic people. Immigration and assistance from America has been rough on them. I keep hearing the news about the south borders between the U.S. and Mexico and how they are not letting cross the border. Also, it has been rough for Hispanics to prove they are worthy to work in America because most of them have taken jobs that others don’t like to do.

I used countering in my paper by using “they say/I say”. I used this countering because it was a nice format to tell the reader what my point is and how I countered Cynthia Selfe with a piece from her passage. It helped me to argue the other side of what Cythnia Selfe said.