Professor Trent Kays

Wiltorian Mitchell
Honors English 102

Minorities and American Dream

Annotated Bibliography
Aguirre, Adalberto, Jr, and Ruben O. Martinez. "The Foreclosure Crisis, the
American Dream, and Minority Households in the United States: A
Descriptive Profile." Social Justice, vol. 40, no. 3, 2014., pp. 6-6.
This journal article focuses on the foreclosure crisis for all American citizens
but it highlights the predatory lending that caused many minorities to lose
their homes. Many people lost their homes around this time but minority
communities were hit harder than none minority communities in various
ways. This collapse affected many minority areas because many minorities
were not able to receive any loans after they foreclosed their homes. Credit
scores were affected which prevented people from obtaining employment or
even renting homes. As a result certain communities had a rise in crime
levels. These same communities income levels dropped and became less
favorable places to live. Many minorities were targeted with predatory
loaning and as a result minorities and minority communities took a harder hit
than white communities. This source adds historical context to Americas
discriminatory real estate issues.
Alex. "American Dream Essay." Alex's Writing Portfolio. N.p., n.d. Web. 30
Sept. 2016.
Alex starts off by telling us of the different ways the American dream can be
defined. He talks about the attainability of the American dream. He
mentions how some people are hindered in obtaining the American dream in
some way because of their differences, race or religion, the things about
them that makes them minorities. He also highlights how some people are

Professor Trent Kays

Wiltorian Mitchell
Honors English 102

given opportunities because of they are a minority, but these opportunities

are granted to a few minorities. The majority of the minority population are
prevented from having these same opportunities. In turn some minorities
treat other minorities poorly in the work place. Alex attributes this to the
white mans ability to divide and conquer. This horrible fact can deter people
from the happiness that they thought they would of achieve from gaining
financial success, which many people relate to the American dream. This
source further hits on the topic of discrimination and how it can hinder some
minorities from fully obtaining the American dream. Alex could have provided
more information about minorities pursuit of the American dream in modern
times.
Brown, Lawrence A., and Michael D. Webb. "Home Ownership, Minorities, and
Urban Areas: The American Dream Writ Local." The Professional Geographer
64.3 (2012): 332-57. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
Lawrence A. Brown and Michael D. Webb did extensive research on minorities
and the American dream. They highlighted the rise and fall in numbers of
home ownership within minority, white, black, Asian and Hispanic groups.
Their article focuses on home ownership changes since 1990, particularly by
minority or low-income populationsknown colloquially as the American
dream. They used varies algorithms and statistics to conclude and support
the information that they provided. This article took an extremely
quantitative perspective. With this quantitative approach we are able to
compare and contrast the information, giving us a visual understanding of
the attainability of the American dream. This also allows us to see correlation

Professor Trent Kays

Wiltorian Mitchell
Honors English 102

between the numbers and groups. This extremely quantitative view has its
advantages but it also has disadvantages. There is no situation where
numbers can tell the whole story. They actually mentioned this and gave
other ways of gathering information that would expound on the topic.
Cashin, Sheryll. The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are
Undermining the American Dream, Public Affairs, New York, 2004.
Ms. Sheryll Cashin writes about the realities of home ownership in many
communities all over the United States of America. She provides and points
out the harsh truth that everyone fuels the separatist fire. The systematic
racism in America has always affected and still effects our neighborhoods. It
also affects minority groups chances of successfully obtaining the American
dream. As people of color have searched to escape poverty, enroll their
children in better schools and obtain better living situations they move into
predominately white areas. The more these predominately white
communities become integrated the property values of their homes
decrease. In turn, those with the means, white people, move to a different
area. In some circumstances blacks who move to predominately white areas
dislike when a new black family moves into the area. Ms. Cashin tells the
truth about homeownership and Americas real estate issues. This source can
be used to inform the masses of a problem we all are aware of but still blind
to.

Professor Trent Kays

Wiltorian Mitchell
Honors English 102

"Minority Homeowners Committed to "American Dream" of Home

Ownership." Take Pride! Community Magazine, vol. 13, Walter L. Mathis Sr,
Mt. Airy, 2004.
This news article focused on minority homeowners and compared them to
non-minority homeowners. The main focus was maintenance and up-keep of
homes. This news article gave many statistics that showed minority home
owners are more concerned about having well maintained homes. Minority
home owners are also more concerned about their children becoming home
owners. This source showed that minorities were more concerned in every
category that they polled for than non-minority home owners. It also showed
minorities needed more maintenance work done and had less means to up
keep their property. As expected, minority home owners were slightly less
knowledgeable about basic home care facts. However, they expressed
greater interest in learning more about home care. This source provides
information on and about both minority and non-minority homeowners. It
alludes to the struggle of being a minority homeowner and expresses that
they are committed to owning their own homes. I believe this source adds to
the prospective of Sheryll Cashin in a cause and effect manor.