Rejection of the American Dream

The bundle of beliefs, assumptions, and action patterns that social scientists have so conveniently labeled the “American Dream”, has continued to be a fragile cluster of equal access to economic abundance, individual freedom of choice in particular lifestyles, and the pursuit of shared objectives mutually worthwhile to the individual and society. In theory, these three different elements , personal liberty, community, and possessiveness, promise the eventual attainment of happiness for all; in actuality, they have never been universally available. The “Dream” has to be saved for all. From the nation’s founding in 1789 to the late 1960’s, Jim Crow laws systematically separated African Americans and other racial minorities and kept up a racial hierarchy. The individuals that benefited, or thought that they benefited from the dream have often realized that it is a burden. The conformity to a set of national values exceeded the individualized rewards that they originally sought after. The dream has been partially realized and, even when realized, has been found insufficient and costly in the most human terms.

Belief in the dream was built into the nation's origin, however, there are several factors that help to explain its continued acceptance, and even more, its approval since the closing years of the nineteenth century. To a particular generation that hoped and wished to renounce the sectional divisiveness of the Civil War, the country’s size and involvement inspired a vibrant America at the turn of the century in an effort to summarize the virtues of the “American” nation. Who has not been allowed to participate fully in the dream? Who has not profited from the conformities sanctioned by national values and aspirations? African Americans have not; nor have the American Indian, the Spanish-speaking American, and the Asian American who sought to purchase their citizenship by uncritically endorsing the “Dream” in belief and in practice as well. These distinctive elements have not fit easily into the “Dream”. In different degrees, they have not melted fully into the greater American society. The dominant majority insisted that they conform. They have ridiculed and looked to destroy the alien cultural heritages by techniques of enslavement, conquest, immigration restriction, segregation, citizenship requirements, process of socialization, and harassment. However, with the growing and maturing strifes of black protests, the emergence of third world coalitions, and the rediscovery of ethnic identities as political and social forces in contemporary America, it confirms that cultural pluralism, which was once silenced and not valued, was not completely crushed by the “American Dream” and its melting pot philosophy.

Throughout the centuries, African Americans have faced the hardships of racism and segregation within the United States and around the world. No other group has been kept subjugated or held as an inferior race for so long a period of time as African Americans. For centuries they have been beaten down by the federal government, and then, to add insult to injury following the end of Reconstruction in 1877, by the state governments of the South as well. The process of stripping African Americans of their social and political rights was not immediate, but instead a gradual process.

There have been battles, protests, and riots in an attempt to end racism and create equal opportunity in the black community. Although there has been an end to slavery and African Americans have gained the rights afforded to them by the Declaration of Independence, they are still being denied their natural born rights everyday through the use of racism. In order to capture the dream of equality, racism and segregation must be put to an end and we must all look at one another as brothers and sisters. Many people say that the American Dream is based on a person’s point of view and their own personal goals in life, but how can the Dream be achieved if every human being does not have the same equal opportunities as the person standing next to them? Until there is an end to racism and everyone is viewed as equals, the American Dream will truly never exist. In society today, racism and segregation are very much alive. There is injustice and unfair advantages for white people that many African Americans do not have and as long as racism continues in the United States, equality will never be reached. Without the chance for equal opportunity, the American Dream can never be obtained. There is, and never will be, an end to racism and for this reason, equal opportunity will never exist thus, causing the American Dream to be unreachable.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes “A Dream Deferred”