Why We Need Success Stories
Lisa Michelle Nelson
One day last week, I was at a commencement address. One of the speakers was a middle-aged black man. He began his address by sharing with the audience his personal background. He told a tear-jerking story of growing up with ten brothers and sisters on a small farm in the south. He had no preschool preparation and his parents could help him little with his homework, as his father was the only one to graduate from high school. About half way through his monologue, I recalled that I knew this story all too well: The poor, poverty stricken black kid from the south who had nothing, rising above it all to achieve a college education. So I asked, "Why is it that every person of color or woman has to tell this hard luck, "against all odds," story in order to legitimize their success?"

In some ways, stories of "rising above the tide" aid in society's democratic, capitalistic, "American" delusion that "if they are willing to work hard they can achieve the American dream." The rhetorical voices say, "If you work hard, you can be the president of the United States." Therefore, the opposite connotation is that those who are in prison, are high school dropouts, are teen mothers, or are any of the host of others who have not taken advantage of the American dream have no one to blame; they choose not to work hard, persevere, and achieve what is rightly available to them.

But is this opposite connotation true?

To ignore this question and focus rather on the hard-working success of the few is to ignore the reality of the many; it is not only a story of individual hard work and determination, but also of overcoming the oppressive systems of greed, corruption, and self-interested policy-making within our society.

But in the American dream story, we ignore the large-market, international players and focus attention on the small Latino kid from the barrio, dodging bullets and crack vials to make it to a dilapidated school room where mayhem rules. If he becomes successful, then we praise him and ignore the obstacles placed within our American, democratic, "you too can become president" society. But if he fails, we blame him, not the world of globalization, corporate greed, and political agendas.

In addition, the "American dream" story must fit within the traditional realm of "success." It is not acceptable to discuss the oppression of women by men. It is not acceptable to include in a woman's success story that she is the victim of domestic violence, child abuse, incest, homophobia, or even sexism in the workplace. How often is a woman celebrated for speaking out against these injustices? We do not want to hear her "success story" because it would require us to acknowledge that the current systems in America continue to oppress women in the 21st century.

It is not the successful persons in our society that need the "you can achieve this too" stories, but rather it is our American, democratic, capitalistic system that needs to reassure itself that in spite of all the obstacles placed in the paths of persons of color and women, if they want it, they can rise above the system that was not built to support them, but rather to keep them in their social places.

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