A Letter to My Future Students on America and the Dream
To my future students,
It is my duty as your educator to prepare you for your life ahead, and teach you about the world in conjunction with our study of history. By learning this history, you will understand some of the impacts our past has had on our future: when I teach you our United States’ history, as documented by textbooks and outlines, you need to know that there is always more to the story, there is always more to dig into. In his book Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates references the way history has been falsely represented in our country. We get some of the story, like how America is diverse and aims for Democracy, yet there is still so much missing about how various people are separated out from the so called unified country. Recognizing and understanding racism’s role in America is a struggle often referenced by Coates — the deep integration of racism in our society has manifested in ways so that black people cannot enjoy the white standards of living. The Dream of wanting to live an American life of barbeques, finding unity between races, and having equal experiences in day to day life is simply a myth that was quickly exposed during Coates’ life, and is a message he wants to pass on to Samori. In a way, I feel the same way as Coates does about how to teach you all about the world. I do not want to preserve your innocence, I want to inform you in the best ways possible in order for you to see the world the way it really is: imperfect. Coates’ advice to Samori to struggle for himself and not the Dreamers is one of the ways to take ownership and redirect the myth of the American Dream and underlying racism. He ends his book by talking about the places that the “habit” of the American Dream will bring you, and wants his son to realize how these beliefs led towards a devastating path, so instead of following a habit or a delusion of how the world might be, live as an individual; know the importance of your body in America. I see similarities when volunteering at the Ritter Center food pantry when people assume that since the resource is there, there is no longer a problem to address. This is false. There is a history of tension between the Ritter Center and the affluent San Rafael community who does not like the low income families living in their vision of a thriving downtown. But our community is our responsibility, and there are still underlying issues of housing crises and stigmatization of homeless people that contribute to the way residents of Marin County think they should have a say over the bodies of these low income residents.
Our bodies are a representation of ourselves, and another person gaining control over them is an issue of vulnerability and entitlement. Both are themes surrounding Coates and his stances about how American society treats black bodies both on a historical and symbolic level. He repeatedly brings up the haunting past of slavery during the Civil War, even saying, “This lie of the Civil War is the lie of innocence, is the Dream.” (102) Inevitably, I will struggle with teaching Civil War in a way that looks at it objectively, but also enhances the way people think about the basis of African American lives in the United States. Coates tactfully compares the dominant and counter narratives of the Civil War to the dominant and counter narratives of surrounding the Dream. This is an interesting view on how America has had both a deceitful past and present, but it affects the bodies of African Americans the same: people either think they have a right over one another or that they are supposed to follow habits with devotion. Feeling vulnerable is very significant for Coates because he makes this connection with the full recognition that his son needs to be told about the “less innocent” parts of history that the American Dream so eagerly wants to forget. I feel that a lot of this is mirrored in the homeless community; people are quick to assume that there is so much mobility for low income people, saying “why don’t they just work hard for their job and get promotions?” while ignoring the most simplest statistics on how cost of living is way more expensive than entry level job wages.
There is a major distinction between Coates’ views on the Dream versus his opinions on the Dreamers. The Dream, for Coates is mainly a myth that is loosely translated to “whiteness” or desireable American lifestyle that is reflected by ignoring significant racial issues in history. He is much more harsh on the idea of the Dream than the Dreamers, but it is a close tie. There are a few times where he seems to sympathize with the Dreamers, yet he sees that they desire something he believes is mainly supported by views of material success and not individual freedoms for black bodies in America.
As a teacher, my goal is to teach you about different realities in our countries: racism, a false Dream, the struggles of people of color. My goal is not to make you hate your home or the people who live in, but rather to educate the future generations of Americans to know that there is a myth that America is the best it can be. It’s not. If we want to improve the world around us we must first start with knowledge and acceptance. We are a people who found a new place in search of independence, but only the independence that benefited the wealthy. However, we are a people capable of change and understanding, a people who might be able to acknowledge these hardships and respond to them in a moral way.
With Hope,
Andy Stenros
