The Inequality of Dreams
As someone who deals with foster children and the foster care system, I note anecdotally, that African-American adolescents do not always articulate that they share many of the dreams that white boys in particular conceptualize seeing themselves as people who can grasp the dream (even when the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming) of owning a car.
The idea of freedom.
The dream of going where you want to go.
African-American teenage males who represent kids at-risk as foster children, have a lot more experience at taking the inner-city trains than white boys have. The idea of mass transit hasn’t evaporated.
The stereotypes we think are real are often complete fantasies. The FBI reports that most grand theft auto (33,000) in the US is a crime committed by white people. African-Americans steal half of that. Crime itself can be stood on its stastical head. It’s never what we think it is.
Economics is endemic to most adolescent dreaming.
Most of us do not give up on our dreams. We tell ourselves that if we wait long enough, it can happen. All of this goes deep with at-risk foster children. They don’t participate. They live in a more immediate space.
Many of them are lucky if they can afford the train.