In Jerald Walker’s essay “How to Make a Slave” he reflects on how racial oppression has impacted his life and, in turn, finds that he wants to change the role racism plays in his children’s lives. Walker wants to achieve this change by educating his children about blackness but talking openly about race tends to go against the social norm. The overall focus of his essay appears to be about racism and racial oppression, however, after reading Sara Ahmed’s essay “Why Happiness, Why Now?” it becomes clear that Walker’s text serves a different purpose. In Ahmed’s essay she explores the idea of happiness, how it affects our choices, and what kind of influence power structures have on it. Ahmed looks at happiness from an unorthodox perspective.…show more content… As Ahmed claims, “happiness indicators tell us which kinds of people have more happiness(6)”. These indicators include things like being married, having children, buying a house, and being wealthy. Happiness indicators such as these are typically ideals associated with achieving the American Dream. It’s safe to say that everyone wants to be happy. However, if happiness is measured only by these indicators, then being happy is not a self-sustaining feeling, but rather a system of reinforcement used by power structures like media to keep people satisfied with accepting less than they are capable of achieving. As Ahmed puts it, “happiness is used to justify…show more content… While it appears that “How to Make a Slave” is solely about racial oppression, Ahmed shows us that we can also be slaves to society’s standards; slaves to happiness. The concept of the American Dream is just another illusion that society pressures people to strive for. When achieving the American Dream is how you become happy then striving after this goal is just another way of becoming a slave to this capitalist nation. So feel free to be
