Waitin’ on the World to Change
To whom it may concern,
If you are reading this, I suggest you become concerned about the myth of the American Dream.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of Between the World and Me, and it is the quintessential book to read written in the past couple years on what’s it like to be black in the United States. In case you’re unaware, the United States has had a mantra for decades known as the ‘American Dream.’ In fact, to quote Coates, “This is the foundation of the Dream — its adherents must not just believe in it but believe that it is just, believe that their possession of the Dream is the natural result of grit, honor, and good works”(98). It’s simple: you work hard enough in life and good things will be in store for you.*
* If you’re white.
Unfortunately, history’s discourse on the Dream has been far more favorable to white people than minorities. What’s also unfortunate is that the United States has a history of slavery, segregation, and voter suppression that many aren’t willing to fully acknowledge as a serious impact on the opportunities here for the black community. The Dream is an excuse to meet black Americans halfway with equality and justice. For example, Coates says, “It does not matter that the ‘intentions’ of individual educators were noble. Forget about intentions. What any institution… ‘intend’ for you is secondary…Very few Americans will directly proclaim that they are in favor of black people being left in the streets. But a very large number of Americans will do all they can to preserve the Dream… ‘Good intention’ is a hall pass through history, a sleeping pill that ensures the Dream” (32). True equality is much easier said than done. Laws such as Brown vs. Board of Education have protected black Americans from segregation in schools since 1964, but schools still continue to find loopholes around the law that result in segregation without the blatant title. Some of these loopholes include district rezoning, gentrification, and poverty in lower-income and communities with minorities. The problem with not highlighting these issues is that those who have never dealt with these situations think too ideally about change in the world. To quote Coates: “‘It only takes one person to make a change,’ you are often told. This is also a myth. Perhaps one person can make a change, but not the kind of change that would raise your body to equality with your countrymen” (96). However, there is a difference between this group of people and Dreamers, those who seemingly deny that the Dream doesn’t work and those who have a “burden of living…there is the extra burden of your country telling you the Dream is just, noble, and real, and you are crazy for seeing the corruption and smelling the sulfur” (106). While men like Coates are frustrated with Dreamers and their denial of the flaws of the American Dream, he continues to have hope in the future, particularly with his son.
To his son: “Your route will be different. It must be. You knew things at eleven that I did not know when I was twenty-five…already you have expectations…Survival and safety are not enough…I am so very proud of you — your openness, your ambition, your aggression, your intelligence. My job…is to match that intelligence with wisdom” (129–130). Coates wants his son to understand that with intelligence and wisdom, he can see past the idealism of the Dream while working to defy the odds of his ancestors.
Just because history has set up a discourse that favors white people being successful doesn’t mean that’s the only option. But, as long as the Dreamers continue to defend the Dream as a flawless system, opportunities for black Americans as well as other ethnic minorities will remain scarce. Start acknowledging the issues collectively, not individually, and change will come.
