American Dream, or Nightmare?

The American Dream: the idea that everyone can prosper if they work hard enough.

To understand this properly, we must understand what prosperity means in this context. Money.

To be financially stable is the objective of the American Dream. And why not?

There’s nothing at all wrong with chasing the bag. It’s the way it’s done that is the problem.

In the eyes of the American Dream, if you’re not rich, it’s because you’re not working hard enough. That’s the basic idea of rugged individualism; one is responsible for their work ethic, and their work ethic is the only thing that will get them to where they want.

Sure, all of this sounds decent, but there’s just one problem. One very small, very important problem.

It’s as though America assumes everyone starts from the same point, that no one’s getting an advantage.

But this is fundamentally inaccurate.

As most of us are aware, America was founded by and for rich white males. In fact, the whole nation was designed to benefit this small portion of citizens, and unfortunately, still is.

America’s Founding Fathers - do you see any people of colour?

So, I’ll give you a scenario. There’s a drag car race, and five contestants. All of them have been told to turn up with their parents’ car—this is what they’ll be using during the race. One contestant turns up with their parents’ Porsche, another with a Ferrari, another with a Honda, another with a bike. And one turns up with nothing.

Of course, we can predict who’ll win this race before it’s even started. Saying that anyone can get to the upper echelons of society just by working hard is a lie. Even worse, is when someone is criticised for not getting where they want, and saying the reason for this is because their work ethic isn’t ‘good enough’. In some cases, this may be true, but for the vast majority, it’s because they have a natural disadvantage. What family you’re born into, the skin colour you’re given, your sex—these are the things that determine how far away from the finish line you’ll be.

And absolutely none of them you can control.

Women are paid on average in the US 82% of what a man is paid. Some of you may be thinking, oh this is better than I was expecting, or, 82% is great, what’s she talking about? However. Why should a woman get paid any less than a man for doing the same amount of work?

The same goes for people of colour. In a study done in Chicago and Boston with 5000 resumes in 2000-2002, results found that ‘white-sounding’ names received 50% more callbacks than those with ‘black’ names. Is this really where we are now, deciding a person’s worth and ability by their name?

I could say the same for queer people, Native Americans, Hispanics—the list goes on. If you are a minority group, or a woman, you’re immediately set back 50 metres in a 200 metre race.

That’s just how the system is built. If I, as a biracial girl, had dreams of becoming CEO of a massive law firm by the age of 28, and I didn’t achieve this goal by then, what would a supporter of the American Dream say? You’re not working hard enough.

The American Dream refuses to acknowledge how broken and flawed the system is, how it’s their fault, not ours.

That’s why it’s not a dream.

And that’s why the American Dream will always be hypothetical, never a reality.

Because that’s how they want it to be.