Rejecting the American Dream

What is the American Dream to me? I honestly couldn't tell you because I don't know if I ever dreamed to attain something that was never for me to attain. I know what other people's version of the American Dream is and I know that a Black man doesn't make an appearance in theirs. How do I know? Because the "Make America Great Again" version of whatever the American Dream is doesn't include anyone non-white and non-wealthy.


Read those second set of words again. "Non-wealthy". Yes, this includes white people who aren't millionaires. Electing Donald Trump to be president was America giving a businessman free reign to use his position, not for the benefit of everyday Americans, but to benefit his own personal business interests here and abroad and to benefit those with whom he shares a common interest with. That common interest? Wealth. You can see that by the appointments he has already made for his upcoming administration. None of his picks, aside from choosing Nikki Haley as UN Ambassador, speak of his intention to continue the momentum that the Obama administration had gained in trying to help the working poor and middle class. Most of Trump's political rhetoric has been based on repealing those efforts, including the Affordable Care Act which provided health care options for those who typically wouldn't be able to afford it. His plans for the continued boost our economy has seen under Obama are cloudy at best and his viewpoints (and, again, appointments) are clearly not empathetic towards immigrants, non-white citizens or those struggling to put food on their table everyday. Trump is like the complete embodiment of what the Republican agenda has been over the past eight years, except it is exponentially more extreme. It is unapologetic, brash, arrogant and exclusionary. And apparently, that is what America wants. And that is what America has now, a unscrupulous businessman as their president.


So what is left for all of those on the outside of what the "American Dream" was supposed to mean for them? To be honest, nothing. I say that because now, especially for Black people, there needs to be a redefinition of what it is that we dream for. A cookie cutter version of the American dream used to be a house with a white picket fence, 2.5 children, a dog and a nice car or two. While many Americans, of color and otherwise, had been able to achieve that in the past, even that may no longer be accessible to those still in pursuit of it. At least not in the conventional way of going to work everyday, saving some money and planning out your financial future. In one of the recent community "Healing Us" gatherings that I attended through Speaking Down Barriers, we discussed how even the traditional way families are viewed and constructed, especially Black families, never traditionally fit into that American Dream mold. It is a construct that wasn't built for us, so there is really no way we can succeed by trying to do it the way those who it was constructed for do it. I've worked a regular job ever since I was 15 (aside from the years between 19 and 20 when I volunteered) and I've never had a time where I didn't live from check to check. Now as a younger person, I made some mistakes with my money that I wish I could go back and correct. But as an older person with bills and desires to be financially stable, the check to check lifestyle is consistently the space in which I operate. It has become clearer to me more over the past four years that working to achieve this American Dream, that was never constructed for me, the way those for whom it was constructed for works to achieve it is an effort in futility.


Case in point: At one point, say in the mid to late 90's, if a person was making around $50,000 living in a major city, people could say that they were doing well. If that same person was married to someone making close to the same and they had kids, then that family would have been said to be doing pretty well. Fast forward to 2016-17 and those same salary numbers no longer hold the security they once did. There are families that would be considered working middle class that worry about their jobs, they worry about how they are going to pay for their children's tuition, how they are going to combat rising insurance premiums. Now, consider a person who makes less than $30,000 a year. Consider that same person with less opportunities to advance at their current place of employment unless they attain a degree. Consider that they would have to hold another part-time job in an effort to make ends meet. Consider that would more than likely not leave them any time to pursue any other endeavors outside of working, just to be able to live a somewhat normal life. Is that what the American Dream is for folks who aren't extremely wealthy? If so, then you can have that dream and I will make my own.


In reading Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me, an open letter to his son, he also spoke of rejecting the American Dream. He spoke of "a rapture that comes only when you can no longer be lied to, when you have rejected the Dream." I personally think there is an entire society, an entire system that we as Black people and other people of color have to reject in order to have our own breakthrough, not just financially but also to our own personal freedoms. There is so much culture, so much talent, so much ambition, so much genius that is never cultivated because there have been limitations placed on us from the start. Crystal Irby, the facilitator at the "Healing Us" gathering, talked about how our parents may have been trying to point us in the right direction just as their parents tried o do the same. Our parents and their parents were trying to assimilate into a society that was chasing this American Dream that was sold to them as a possibility. And some of us may have been able to attain that Dream, but many have had to overcome great odds to do so. Chris Rock once said that he lives in a neighborhood in which the houses are worth millions of dollars. There were four Black people that lived there at the time and they were fellow celebrities, including him. These celebrities, along with himself, were at the top of their respective professions. They were famous. He went on to joke (maybe) that his next door neighbor was a dentist. A dentist. The bit goes on to speculate whether or not he was an alright dentist, probably not the top dentist in his profession. But yet, that dentist could afford to live in a community amongst four well known Black celebrities. So to be able to attain, somewhat, what society has constructed as this Dream that is so-called available to everyone, as a person of color, you have to be at the top of your profession, or at least better than the average dentist.


While some of this is a little lighthearted, the truth of the matter is that we have to blaze our own paths, write our own tickets, create our own Dream. We have to channel our gifts, instill in our youth the reality that this society holds and understand that all of this is nothing new. We have leaders who are dedicated to building up our next generation of leaders. These are not politicians or celebrities. These are community activists, founders of non-profit organizations designed to unite our communities, other organizations that also support artists, writers, poets, musicians, etc. These are young ones empowered by their own journeys that want to empower others that come from the same communities they do. These are the people who will forge the paths for those have rejected this false American Dream, who know what "Make America Great Again" really means, who know that we, as a people who have been marginalized but yet still remain, are what makes this country of ours great. Our successes are not defined by what society dictates they are. The Black Influence on pretty much everything American defines our successes, it defines who we are and where we are going. The Dream that includes us will be different to each and every one of us because it will be based on the experiences that we as individuals have lived through. Our separate paths to it will be different as well because it will be based on a construct of our own design as individuals and as a people. But it will be a realistic Dream to attain. Just wait and see.