2024/08/19 by Jason Torkelson, Alex Parton, Joseph Gerteis +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Migration, Refugees, and Integration #Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
paper · doi:10.1080/00380253.2024.2387359
openalex publication_date 2024/08/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
The American Dream has long been understood as a “shorthand summary of a nation’s collective aspirations” (Hauhart 2015:65). What determines optimism about the Dream? This paper uses nationally representative data collected at a critical historical juncture to advance research which has connected the American Dream to America’s racial history. We find faith in the American Dream was racialized into the 21st-Century, both in the sense that our data show different levels of optimism toward the Dream by race and in that predictors of belief vary by racialized experiences and ideologies. We find that most Americans continued to believe in the American Dream, but contrary to prominent 20th-Century understandings, whites became less optimistic than persons of color, and that this remaining white belief was complex, with racial attitudes being central. Predictors of belief in the Dream were different by race in ways that may vitally reflect how collective aspirations are conceived from within unfolding American racial civic histories and 21st-Century racial hierarchies, patterns we discuss as privileged multiculturalism (whites), meritocratic incorporation (Hispanics), and positive social inclusion (Blacks). Ultimately, these findings suggest that the socio-cultural significance of the American Dream is not just tied to material position but intertwined with racialized cultural expectations, outlooks, and status concerns.