SYSTEMIC RACISM

How The White American Dream Has Become a Black Nightmare

We’re sorry to say a rising tide did not lift all boats

The American Dream of white picket fences, apple pies cooling on window sills, and communities so safe you could leave your front door unlocked is not something everyone has access to. This is not by accident but by design, as the founding fathers initially excluded Black people and women of any race from voting, owning land, or holding positions of power. And despite the progress made in expanding civil rights, our country has fallen short in ensuring Black people and marginalized groups have equal access to opportunities. While many believe a rising tide lifts all boats, this doesn’t accurately describe the disparities between Black and White Americans.

What is the American Dream? For many, this phrase refers to homeownership, but there’s also something deeper about this concept, an embodiment of our collective hopes and dreams. The Declaration of Independence says citizens have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” However, it’s not a secret that Black Americans were deprived of these unalienable rights. No liberty could be found in the chattel slavery system, and their right to life was under constant threat during the Jim Crow era. One could argue that Black people’s pursuit of happiness in America has always been deprived by racism, whether perpetuated systematically or on an individual level.

Is the American Dream a hoax, the same as a cereal box promising a prize is inside when there isn’t?

Of course, the topic brings to mind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous 1963 I Have a Dream Speech, which he delivered at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. As he spoke, King painted a picture of a more equitable version of America. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality,” he insisted. “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote,” King noted, touching on many of the issues that continue to plague the Black community today, police brutality, and voter suppression, and apathy. The Black American dream embodies the idea that we can collectively mitigate racism to foster equity. However, one could argue the White American dream is something else altogether.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1963 I Have a Dream Speech

Throughout history, the White American dream has often been at odds with the Black American dream. While early White Americans pursued power, Black Americans sought their freedom. For instance, the chattel slavery system dehumanized Black people to bolster the financial and social power of enslavers. While White cotton or sugar plantation owners wanted to maintain slavery to secure their wealth and status, the Black American dream, at that point, was rooted in liberation. During Jim Crow, White Americans sought to maintain the racial hierarchy despite abolition, controlling when, where, and for whom Black people could work, where they could live, which schools their children could attend, what companies they could conduct business with, and where they sat on public busses, trolleys, and even which water fountain they could drink from.

The American dream of whites-only neighborhoods, schools, and buses was created at the cost of a Black American nightmare of racial discrimination, segregation, and domestic terrorism. Maya Angelou wrote, “I am the dream and the hope of the slave,” in her poem, Still I Rise. Simply by being free, except for that pesky loophole in the 13th Amendment, Black Americans have embodied at least part of their dream. However, in this country, one where Black people in the 21st century continue to experience racial discrimination in education, housing, healthcare, banking, and the criminal justice system, it’s clear that the Black American dream remains more ambitious than reality. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” the saying goes. Freedom and opportunities made available for White people should mean that Black people and other marginalized groups receive those same rights. But, far too often, it doesn’t.

The white privilege of today was created during the chattel slavery system and maintained through racist laws, policies, and traditions. White Americans benefited financially, socially, and politically from the injustices other groups endured. Whether we examine the role of European and White American colonists in the forced relocation and enslavement of African people, the role they played in forcibly removing Indigenous people from their land, or the creation of Jim Crow laws that segregated people by race, White Americans were afforded privileges at the cost of Black Americans and Indigenous people, because they had the power to do so, not because they are in any way superior to other racial groups.

In his 1931 book Epic of America, James Truslow described the “American Dream” as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” Of course, all this sounds well and good on the surface level. But, far too often, Black Americans are deprived of equitable access to opportunities. In an inequitable society, “ability” and “achievement” are skewed metrics. This is how color-blind racism functions, by the way. By refusing to acknowledge existing racial disparities, they are perpetuating the status quo. There’s nothing neutral about pretending society is just when it’s riddled with inequalities. As Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel said, “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”During the 1930s, when Truslow published his book and popularized the phrase “American Dream,” Black Americans were experiencing the horrors of the Jim Crow era, where racial terror lynchings and massacres targeting black communities were all too common. So, as Truslow wrote this book, he couldn’t have been referring to a version of the American Dream that included Black people.

Furthermore, Truslow suggested that societal opportunities should be tied to achievement and ability, perpetuating a just beliefs worldview. Many White people naively believe hard work is the only factor that contributes to someone’s access to opportunities. As long as people feed into the myth that we live in a fair society, they will wind up blaming the victims of racism for the discriminatory conditions they experience. Claiming the American dream embodies the pursuit, or access to a better life “according to” someone’s “ability or achievement,” ignores the fact that white supremacy operates in a way that systematically deprives Black people of equitable access to this “better life.” Is the American Dream a hoax, the same as a cereal box promising a prize is inside when there isn’t? The Black homeownership rate is lower than it was a decade ago. According to the National Association of Real Estate Agents, “the Black homeownership gap is larger than it was 60 years ago,” a phenomenon the pandemic worsened. Yet, as far as the national conversation is concerned, reparations are off the table.

American society was created under the premise that “all men are created equal.” However, it’s clear that “all men” didn’t refer to Black men, and of course, not women either. Racism and sexism were embedded as core features of our country’s systems, our Constitution, and our form of government, which continues to impact the distribution of resources and opportunities. Perhaps that’s why so many Black Americans feel shortchanged by their nation, underpaid, underappreciated, and undervalued. Of course, there is hope we can create an American dream that Black Americans and other marginalized groups can access, one we could be proud of. Still, it would take everyday people rallying around shared values and unabashedly dismantling discriminatory systems. And as long as diversity, equity, and inclusion remain on state legislators’ chopping blocks, it’s unlikely Black Americans will have access to this “American Dream” anytime soon.

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