Wake Up! It’s Serious: A Campaign for Change Committee partnered with Uniting N.C. on Tuesday night to host the second in a series of discussions on immigration and the “American Dream” in the Caldwell Lounge.

The event featured Rupert Nacoste, a professor from the Department of Psychology, as a speaker.

Members Lydia Bravo-Taylor, Omar Bajwa, and Josh Andrews opened up the event with the mission of their committee. Wake Up! It’s Serious: A Campaign for Change is a group of N.C. State students whose motive is speak up against racial slurs and intolerance. 

Lydia Bravo-Taylor, a senior in sociology, said the American dream is rooted in independence, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. She also said that the U.S. was a land of opportunity for all regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity. 

“The American dream, you have to be asleep to believe it,” Bravo-Taylor said, quoting George Carlin.

Bravo-Taylor said there is a hidden reality that minorities and immigrants do not start off on the same footing as other Americans. Everybody may start equally, but not with equity. 

Bravo-Taylor opened the discussion with emphasis that everyone should speak up and wake up. She also reminded the crowd to be respectful of others. 

Omar Bajwa, a senior in psychology, showed a clip from “The Godfather” to highlight the difficulty in immigrating into the United States. 

One element of the clip underscored the immigrant as having to