Myth or Reality
ESL D&E
Teddy Chocos
Shanrui Yong (Ray)
03/02/2014
Americans values such as equality of opportunity and equality of competition are most
ideals that not describe all of the reality of Americans lives. Nevertheless, people who lived in
United States believed that equality of opportunity exist but have the conditions. The conditions
of the equality of opportunity such as education level, race, and social class are assignable causes
that may affect the people who desire to succeed. These foundation factors also drive the
Americans values and make a concept with competition. According to Maryanne Datesman in
the book American Ways, “Equality of opportunity is an ideal that is not always put into practice.
In reality some people have a better chance for success than others. Those who are born into rich
families have more opportunities than those who are born into poorer families. Inheriting money
does give a person a decided advantage, Race and gender may still be factors affecting success…”
(37). It seems that equality of opportunity in America is not equal for all individual. Especially
for the people whom born into a poor or colored family, they probably need pay more price and
hard work to compete with others or to achieve their goals.
In the early years of American history, a number of immigrants chose came to United
States because they believed that they have a better chance to succeed at here than their
homeland. The equality of opportunity in that period of time is for all Americans even for most
of immigrants. In that time people starting with little family or an individual could use their two
hands to build a decent life for themselves. The reason why they succeed in United States is the
government and environments provide the equal chance for them. The opportunity for that times’
America is close to real equal. Most of immigrants describe that times’ America is “Land of
opportunity”. However, as the economy went down and noble class had power, the situation was
changed. The Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Nowadays the United States has less
equality of opportunity than other advanced industrial country. The new reality of “opportunity”
is —of the opportunity to compete with others for a limited number of desirable positions in
society—“competitive opportunity”.
However, the competitive opportunity also has its condition and in most of states the
condition may extremely unfair for particularly group of people such as international student.
The inequality of opportunity and inequality competition for international students in United
States reflected in high tuition, less opportunity, and low employment rate. In recent years, as the
international students in America have increased, the government and school set up the rules for
them, which limited their fair and equal treatment policy. In other words, the equality of
opportunity for international students does not exist. For example, international students pay the
full price for their tuition and accommodation fee, which is much higher or even doubled than
local students. As a result, the international students are definitely charged unequal and unfairly
high tuition fees in United States. Unfortunately, after the international students graduate from
the school, the equality of competition for them also is an ideal that hardly ever come true. For
instance, if there is an employment opportunity, the competition between international student
and domestic student are obviously unfair and largely affect the result. Often time, for a manager
to makes a decision between domestic and international students, who have the same education
level and graduated from same school is biased. The domestic students have absolute advantages.
In order to become a legal employee, international students must obtain work visa. This work
visa requires the employer’s company to pay extra money and effort to apply. Due to this
situation, a lot of companies refuse to help applicants to obtain work visa, which largely affect
the working opportunity for international students. So, many international students have been
forced to go back to their hometown after graduation. It also means if an international student
want to compete for a job opportunity, he/she often needs get a higher education or more
experience than domestic student. Therefore, it is important for them to understand the reality of
opportunity and competition. The more known reality, the more achieved dreams.
In Datesman’s view, “Equality of opportunity may be thought of as an ethical rule. It
helps ensure that the race for success is a fair one and that a person does not win just because he
or she was born into a wealthy family, or lose because of race or religion”. (34) Nevertheless,
recently the California Senate passed SCA-5, which would allow the State of California to
discriminate an individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.
This document would be punishing the Asian-Americans in California even in United States. The
immigrants in United States especially the Asian-Americans are disadvantaged groups. Once the
SCA-5 passed, the other States will imitate. This is a disaster for the Asian immigrants that
largely limit them and their children’s fair and equal treatment. For most of their children this
will limit them to obtain high educations and may completely change their life. The reason why
California Senate passed SCA-5 is obviously because Asian-Americans’ competitiveness are
largely impact the other Americans’ benefit. Currently, Asian-Americans often need test scores
hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of
admission. In this case the equality of opportunity for Americans seems patently ridiculous. The
equal opportunity is not equal when it has the conditions and be affected by the government. If
government cannot provide the equality of competition environment and respect for all
individual, the equality of opportunity will just an America myth.