The Truth Behind The American Dream

14 February 2021

The Truth Behind The American Dream

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were rapid waves of immigration and industrialization in what is now called the Gilded Age. People from all over the world, inspired by stories they heard of the “American Dream,” sought to achieve it for themselves. The American Dream is a concept which offers everyone a chance for social mobility and the ability to accumulate wealth through hard work and dedication. I believe that the American Dream is an overexaggerated belief in how much social mobility there actually can be in America, and as a country, we have never offered truly equal opportunity to all immigrants due to America’s history of racial injustices and social inequalities.

The promise for social mobility based only on a person’s abilities and achievements is hyperbolized today. It may have been true in the past, that anyone could work their way to the top, and there have been notable examples such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie — both of whom attained massive wealth during the Gilded Age by having the foresight to see the upcoming railroad industry and positioned themselves to greatly benefit from it. James Truslow Adam expands on his Definition of the American Dream offering that “[i]t is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest statute of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position” (Adams). Under ideal circumstances, I would be inclined to agree. However, we must recognize that social mobility and achievements have always been inherently unequal because of America’s past racial and economic injustices to people of color. The most obvious example that comes to mind is slavery when discussing America’s racial history, but a more contemporary, and infamous racial policy was redlining. Redlining, from the 1950s, was a practice that outright barred Black (and other minority) families living in so-called “red” zones (neighborhoods with significant African-American populations) from getting mortgages and loans from the bank. Practices like redlining and segregation have proven how selective our society is when it comes to allowing for social mobility for non-white individuals.

Nativism has also played a massive role in the limited degrees of social and economic mobility for immigrants. Nativism refers to the ideology of prioritizing the interests of native-born Americans over that of the immigrants (“Nativism”). Beliefs like “the immigrants are taking my jobs” and “They’re unAmerican” usually stem from this train of thought. Persecution against immigrants took many forms. The Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 sought to make it difficult for immigrants to become American citizens, even going as far as to give America the ability to deport immigrants on arbitrary guidelines such as deeming the immigrants too “dangerous”, or because they immigrated from a “hostile” nation. Contemporary examples include President Donald Trump’s fear-mongering of America’s necessity to build a physical wall along the southern U.S.-Mexico border and the ever-increasing military budget which grows in the name of protecting Americans from “terrorists”. These instances of nativism clearly poke holes in the American Dream’s promise for success and serve to highlight how limited and exaggerated the American Dream is.

The American Dream has become an exaggerated concept due to overlooked racial and economic inequalities that prevent the dream from being a reality. Social mobility does exist, but not to the extent that one might think after hearing stories of success and a “better life” in America. The American Dream seems to be a quickly fading bragging point that will no longer have relevance as more and more countries catch up economically to offer levels of opportunity beyond what we have to offer.

Works Cited

Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. Little Brown, 1931.

“Nativism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nativism. Accessed 30 Oct. 2020.