Actually, I agree with your general premise. The dream King spoke about doesn't exist within a lot of alleged American culture. More black men and women have degrees, but at the same time still get treated differently when gaining employment. Formerly poor minority neighborhoods have seen improvements in select cities across the country, only to have those minority residents displaced. There are more minority people in media but only portrayed in a certain manner. You can say its great hip-hop & rap are mainstream only the popular ones are glorifying negative aspects of life. We know kids are smoking weed but it seems like law enforcement has preference for enforcing the law on minority youths.

It appears that for every supposed progress we've made, there is an opposite action that also seems to negate that gain somewhat. One can't say it is a net-zero effect as a good portion of American youth born post-1985 seem to actually live that dream. However, it is fair to say that those youths definitely have very little presence in American culture at large.

We also agree on another point. Western society, from my point of view, is completely lacking in actual self-responsibility. Every ill is the fault of an institution or another person, but never from your lack of personal participation or decisions. My favorite example is how can the government be terrible when we are supposedly the ones electing these individuals? How is it not our personal failure to actively participate in the political sphere with our own minds and thought? How are we not to blame for swallowing the readily available option? So on and so forth.