On the American Dream
- Soham Sinha
- Oct 12, 2020
- 3 min read
One of the most striking sights I saw on my very first day at Stanford, was the row of RV's parked next to the campus border on the south side. I was so shocked to find out that these RVs, are not just left there for parking, but people actually live in them; clothes were strung out to dry outside on the fences, there were sun blockers inside the car, induction cookers, toys, etc.
Perhaps, what remains the saddest image in my brain, was the sight of a woman stepping out of one of those RVs in a waitress uniform, and kissing her son goodbye on the forehead.
It was rather contradictory - they were too poor to afford the rent in Palo Alto but rich enough to avoid the cold streets at night.
For the first time in my life, I realized how protected I was growing up, and how naive I am when it comes to understanding others. In my head, what homeless meant were those people whom you would see at the corner grocery store, most likely drug addicts, or mentally ill. But I was so wrong, so wrong about the causes of homelessness.
There is a serious homeless problem at Palo Alto, and a large portion (54 %) of the homeless in Palo Alto live in these RVs (I have some links attached to the end of this blog if you are curious.) Part of the problem is the insanely high rent and the median price of homes here - $3 million dollars. There are a lot of factors driving this, but a significant one is due to the school district. Palo Alto is home to one of the best school districts in America - Palo Alto High School is built upon land that Stanford had donated, and is right next to campus. There is an extremely high demand for children to go to one of the high schools here because they have a good shot of getting into good schools or even have a good career - to give you an example, the highly successful Franco Brothers (actors James, and Dave, and artist Tom), are all alumni of the Palo Alto High school. Due to limited housing (worth another blog post at another time), the price has skyrocketed to keep with demand.
But, what to me this really shows, and especially the image of those RVs, is that the American Dream is not an inclusive dream, but rather its a dream for a select few. People come to California, come to the West, in the hopes of a better life; but one of the things that I never realized that how many others were forced to lose their own dreams to accommodate the dreams of another. The majority of the homeless in Palo Alto, are not those who have come out of state. But those, who have lived in Palo Alto their entire lives, and became homeless, because they lost their jobs, or rent became too high from highly paid individuals moving into the area due to Silicon Valley, rapid gentrification due to company expansions, etc. And this is not the first time it has happened, when the American Settlers pushed west, they displaced the Native American Tribes and forced them into reservations in the remote areas of middle America.
In my mind, the American Dream should not be celebrated as a crowning achievement of USA. Its a brutally selfish dream which sparks disregard for others, spurns greed if unchecked, and worst of all, refuses to acknowledge its side effects (sort of like how James Franco has become - if your curious, check out his lawsuits regarding his sexual harassment).
Stanford has its own part to play - it created Silicon Valley and encourages its students to go and become entrepreneurs. It sells the American Dream in a rather sanitized version; furthermore, being a student at Stanford gives you an unequal footing in the playing ground. It's unfair competition.
I realize how lucky and privileged I am to be attending Stanford, and my biggest fear is that one day I will forget this - I fully believe that I am here because of many others who have helped me (my parents who always told me to focus on my studies, my mentors in school and college, friends, family).
And keeping that in mind, I have a debt to pay forward one day - especially I owe it for the young kid in that RV, such that he also has a chance like me.
Homeless in Palo Alto Links:
James Franco Assault Allegations:
https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-james-franco-allegations-20180111-htmlstory.html
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