Cradle of Liberty.

“This is called The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave; it is called the Asylum of the Oppressed, and some have been foolish enough to call it the Cradle of Liberty. If it is the Cradle of Liberty, they have rocked the child to death.”

William Wells Brown, an avid abolition fighter, said this way back in the 1800’s. This got me thinking; thank goodness times have changed, right? Thank goodness America is now free from oppression, and each and every person is able to live out his or her lives, without the hindrances of the past. Gender, sexuality, economic class, religion or race; the problems of our ancestors. Thank goodness for a sound justice system that ensures a fair trial, free from bias of any form. Thank goodness that education is readily available to every child and that child’s success is only reliant on the amount of hard work that they are willing to put in, and the amount of homework that they do.

Ah, yes, America; The Home of the Free. As many times as this hymn of a perfect America is staring me in the face on the television, the façade seems to be faltering and the silhouette of the star-spangled paradise is fading into the deep abyss of reality. But surely, it’s not as bad as William Wells Brown has made it out to be? As well as a civil rights leader, Willy was a play-writer and novelist after all, known for his taste in all things eccentric. A civilised country, such as America, ‘the leader of the free world’, can’t still be struggling with inequality and governmental neglect on her own shores. Especially not when she’s fighting international wars in the name of the exact same causes? Surely not. Surely not in the ‘Land of Opportunity’. Surely not the Great U.S of A.

Just quickly, check your wallet. Now look down at your hands. And now look slightly lower. If you’ve just concluded that you are anything other than a white, middle-class male, I have some bad news for you, my friend; William’s reflection of America fits you like a glove. No American dream for you. The sad reality of it is that any minute sprinkle of minority, even if it’s no longer around, rather just a mention in a history book, is more than likely at a disadvantage in the great country.

Women; one of the main groups that we pretend this discrimination doesn’t occur to. Ever since August 1920, when the men returned from war and those pesky women had gotten themselves all empowered, ladies have had the vote in America. A message that men and women are equal has been shouted from the rooftops ever since, and any female who disagrees is probably a 50 years old with dread locks and hairy armpits. And definitely crazy. But maybe, just maybe, she’s not. Maybe, when she says that women are underappreciated and under paid in the executive world, earning only 72 cents for every dollar of her male co-worker, she knows what she’s talking about.

And it’s not only in corporate America that women are missing out; not by any stretch of the imagination. There are numerous reports of women being raped and assaulted in female only prisons by male guards. What has been done to combat this, you ask? In Alabama Jail, when an inmate reported just this in 2013, she was put on a birth control pill by the warden. “It doesn’t look like he’ll stop anytime soon” she was told. But like our flamboyant feminist, this inmate, surely too, is crazy. What insanity to ask for a little bit of dignity.

There’s seems to be a little extra bit of misogyny in the free-flowing American waters, because October 2014, it happened yet again. Criminal defence attorney, Joseph DiBenedetto, was defending his client; a man accused of raping a Missouri teenager. After accusing the teen of lying about the incident to avoid getting in trouble with her mother, Dibenedetto then had the chutzpah to claim: “what did she expect to happen at 1 am after sneaking out? I’m not saying she deserved to get raped but…” I’m not saying he deserves to lose his licence but…

At this stage, I could list a countless number of one liners of equal or greater arrogance. There are too many for a society that is self-labelled as equal. Hold your bald-eagles because it about to get even worse. Every single year, 500,000 women, yes, five hundred thousand women, are bought to America as part of an elaborate sex trafficking trade. Women are also abducted from the streets and sent overseas for the same reason. ‘Asylum for the Oppressed’ indeed.

At least we can all sleep easy in the knowledge that Martin Luther King Junior won the fight for equal rights and that racism is no longer a problem in the 21st century, right? In a land that has recently taken massive bounds in passing laws to make same sex marriage legal, racist discrimination is still very much at the forefront of America. A flag reintroduced by the Kru Klux Klan flew on many parliament buildings until just months ago. If that isn’t liberty, I, quite frankly, don’t know what is.

A right to an education is one of the United Nations listed essential human rights. 42% of African American children graduate high school. That’s an all-time high. Black kids are pushed into a cycle of poverty because of this lack of education. In America, 27.4% of the black population, almost one third, are living under the poverty line, along with 26.6% of Hispanic residence, compared to just under one tenth of the white population. Funny how we don’t see that in a bit of week night telly.

At least America has the unwavering neutrality of it justice system, and police looking out for our African American brothers, right? Yet again, the facts hit me like a punch in the face, tearing down the ignorant bliss I was living in. Racism is not dead. In fact, racism is living, quite happily, as one of the few liberated in America.

Within the hand of the law, being a free man and being shot multiple times seems to come down to a roll of the dice, with the answer being significantly dictated by skin colour. “Innocent until seen to be black” protestors call it. This is backed up by the fact that people of colour are seven times more likely to be imprisoned than a white person, and four times as likely to be put on death row. Numerous studies have linked this to the fact that often, due to the above mentioned high poverty rates, black people cannot afford a lawyer, so are allocated one by the ever-protecting state. 98% of district attorneys are white. But of course, that has nothing to do with it. For black people, there is no protection in police, nor justice, nor are they safe in their own homes. Black males under the age of 25 are 15 times more likely to be murdered than a white man. For those not imprisoned, the streets of Harlem are a jail enough. It seems that the statue of Liberty also salutes to the majority.

Oh, say can you see, a culture of oppression that lays beneath a blanket of ignorance. I’m not trying to say that the American dream is unachievable. I’m saying that there are prerequisites that have nothing to do with the attitude or hard work or anything to do with the actual person. Male or Female. Black or White. You are born into the dream. You are born into oppression. When I look back at our dramatic writer, William Wells Brown’s quote, I see a heart breaking resemblance after 200 years of ‘progress.’ “This is called The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave; it is called the Asylum of the Oppressed, and some have been foolish enough to call it the Cradle of Liberty. If it is the ‘Cradle of Liberty,’ they have rocked the child to death.” They have rocked the child to death.