Read the article ‘’A New American Dream’’ and answer the following 1. Think: Closely read and annotate the article. (Hint: You can use the Highlights and Notes tool on the right side of the readin

Denene Millner Apr. 2, 2018 The New York Times The New York Times Company Guest commentary 885 words (Level 4) 1120LFull Text: Daddy lives in a quiet corner of Virginia, on the same country road his grandmother walked in the early 1900s. Recently, he sharedwith me some writings he's been keeping for years -- little remembrances, ideas about what constitutes a loving family, what makes aman. One of the essays describes the day his mother died.He and his brothers found her body; she was lying in the bed next to her 5-day-old daughter, with a small piece of apple in her mouth.No one knows if she choked on that apple, had an asthma attack or, like so many other black women in America, died fromcomplications of childbirth.What my father does know is that when his mother died, he had to drop out of school to start working. Daddy was 10, a fifth grader.He never went back, a tragedy that he is sure sealed his fate as a lifelong blue-collar worker. He spent the rest of his working yearstoiling in factories -- making plastic tablecloth fabrics, then repairing machines and overseeing production at a bakery.He speculates that had his mother lived, life would have been different. ''Maybe I could have been a doctor,'' he wrote. ''She wouldhave helped me.''That sentence reflects a simple truth about parents, white and black: They want their children to have a better life than they did.My parents were middle class but vulnerable; a missed paycheck could lead to a missed mortgage payment, which could lead to theloss of their home, dropping them into poverty. Education and professional careers, they insisted, would save my brother and mefrom this fate. And they were right.But things have changed since I was a kid. Now that I have children of my own, I am learning that the chances that they will end upbetter off than me are slim, and that in fact they're in danger of being sucked back into poverty.A few years ago, The Atlantic published a story detailing all the ways racial disparities in ''transformative assets'' chip away at blackmillennials' ability to build wealth. This generation has been forced to forgo buying homes and investing in favor of contributing totheir parents' bills and paying off college loans.Now, a new study on race and economic opportunity has revealed that black boys who are raised in wealthy families are more likelyto become poor as adults than they are to remain wealthy.The explanation was obvious: racism, and the continuous price African-Americans pay for it, from generation to generation.For this black parent, those stories are the stuff of nightmares. From the moment I saw the double lines on my pregnancy test, Idreamed of a world in which my children win -- where they slay their A.P. courses, go to great colleges like Yale or Spelman andenjoy lucrative careers.I assumed that by the time my two daughters and stepson were of age, society would have moved on from the institutional barriersthat lurk in the shadows like some boogeyman, ready to jump out and thwart the forward movement of black folk.I was hopeful that by then black students would be accepted into A.P. classes without a fight; employers would no longer be tossingout resumes with ''black sounding'' names; black women would get the same pay for the same work as white men; and black familiescould live in the neighborhoods of their choosing and get mortgage rates based on their credit and not on the color of their skin. Surely my children would be better off than me.But here we are, in 2018, the same old shotgun threatening to buck down my children's chances at a better life, despite my efforts toplay by America's rules. I have been a hands-on parent. I have pushed my kids academically. I have pushed myself, just like Daddy,to make sure that they have what they need and even some of the things they want so they could focus on being great.Still, statistics say they have a high chance of failing. And I am scared for them.African-American parents can't stop demanding equality, but perhaps we need to start dreaming of a different kind of success: ahybrid of the life my father led as a child (while appallingly unjust, segregation made the black community self-reliant, assuring thatAfrican-Americans traded in goods and services among themselves) mixed with the expectations he had for me (success in corporateAmerica). Maybe the challenge we should pass along to black children now is to never be afraid of avoiding the shackles of corporateAmerica and creating their own businesses -- businesses that also serve our community.And maybe it's time for us to redefine success altogether. Doing ''better than me'' could be about our babies growing up to behealthier, happier and more passionate about the things that matter to them -- hard workers, yes, with the cash they need, sure, butalso pioneers of a new paradigm that lets go of the all-too-elusive American dream.In all things, let there be joy. This, for my children, young, black and gifted, I wish with no fear.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. COPYRIGHT 2018 The New York Times Company http://www.nytimes.com (MLA 8th Edition) Millner, Denene. "A New Black American Dream." , 2 Apr. 2018, p. A23(L). ,https://link-gale-com.ccco.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A532882890/GIC?u=aur58810&sid=GIC&xid=ed248025. Accessed 12 Feb.2020. GALE|A532882890