The Unacheivable Dream

The American Dream is an idea that has been in the heart of the United States since its beginning. It is the concept that everyone has the equal opportunity to achieve their dreams regardless of their background and race. Despite the wide use of the term, the American Dream has shown to be achievable. The racial differences that have existed in the past and even today cause tensions between people that lead to bias and discrimination. Immigrants and even ethnic groups born in the U.S. have historically been treated unfairly by the public majority and the government, thus causing them to be unable to achieve their goals in this nation. This prejudice is why the American Dream could not exist in today's society.

The minority group that is most well-known for being discriminated against in the U.S. is the African Americans. Ever since America was discovered by Western Europe in 1492, and even after the creation of the United States, there have been great amounts of restrictions on blacks, slavery being the most notable form. People who supported slavery and/or white supremacy in the U.S. tried to justify it by saying that blacks were naturally less intelligent than whites, and that they were actually helping them by providing them with food, shelter, and a job. After the Civil War, African Americans were given freedom from slavery, the right to citizenship, equal treatment under the law, and the right to vote. However, white supremacists in the South formed secret societies, such as the Ku Klux Klan, to use intimidation to prevent them from voting. Alleged members of this group were arrested and tried, however they often never saw justice because the judges were often members of these racist societies themselves. After the laws that restricted them were removed, the African Americans still faced the ideals of “separate but equal”. These were not laws but they restricted where they could be and what they could do. This meant that African Americans were in worse schools than whites, lived in worse neighborhoods than whites, and were overall at a major disadvantaged in life. These ideals were even ruled constitutional in the Supreme Court case Plessy vs Ferguson in 1896.

Even today African Americans face discrimination and abuse. A practice that is seen today called convict leasing is used to essentially rent out African American prisoners to plantation owners against their will. Many who are involved in this process felt like “modern day slaves”. African Americans also face discrimination in the job market. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that many U.S. companies assume that African Americans take illegal drugs. Studies also show that a large amount of traffic stops involve African Americans. Many of these are not because they have committed some kind of crime, but because the officer suspects them of doing or have done something illegal because they are black. This shows that there is not equal opportunity in America and that there is bias that exists towards African Americans that hinders their pursuit of happiness and thus also hinders the American Dream.

Another ethnic group that has been restricted from reaching their American Dream is the Asians. The first major wave of Asian immigrants to the U.S. came from China during the Gold Rush and during the expansion of railroads across the country. Many of these immigrants were looked down upon by the white majority because they believed that they were taking a large amount of their jobs, specifically in the mining and railroad industries. Around this time, an anti-miscegenation law was passed which prohibited marriage with Asians. In the late 1800’s the term “Yellow Peril” was used to view Asians as a political, economic, and military threat to the U.S. which made it even more difficult for them to gain better equality. One of the most significant examples of the U.S. preventing them from achieving their American Dream was when president Roosevelt issued the executive order in 1942 which gave the military the authority to relocate anyone with Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast to government relocation camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Approximately 110,000 Nikkei were sent to these camps and were forced to leave everything they had behind, even when about ⅔ of these people were American citizens. This shows another racial disadvantage in the U.S. in regards to fulfilling their American Dream.

Another minority group that throughout the course of American history has not been able to achieve the American Dream is the Native Americans. Native Americans have faced hardships achieving goals since the arrival of the Europeans. They were constantly depicted as savages and killers by the Europeans who seized much of their land and property. They were forced farther away from their native grounds, and promises and treaties given to them were constantly broken by the Europeans and the Americans after their creation of the United States. Today they also face hardships due to injustices like those. Many Native Americans now live in extremely poor conditions. Many of their schools are in incredibly poor conditions, being riddled with asbestos and not having anywhere near enough supplies and furniture. This all impedes on their ability to be successful and achieve their goals and shows the irony in the American Dream of how it is nearly impossible for the original inhabitants of the land to fulfill their dreams.

A group that faces discrimination in the U.S. is the Latinos. Many Latinos in America face the prejudice and assumption by many that they are in the country illegally. In 2012, a law in Arizona was passed that allowed police officers to pull over and request immigration papers from any Latinos they suspected to be in America illegally. This lead to many Latinos, whose families had been in America for several generations, getting pulled over under the suspicion of them being illegal immigrants. As they were legal citizens, many of these people did not have any kind of document proving their citizenship on hand as they did not feel they needed to. Many of these citizens were detained because they did not carry their legal documents with them at that time. This law specifically targeted the Latino race and led to the seizure of the rights of many innocent Latinos. The existence of this law further shows the prejudices between races in the U.S.

As proven in the examples above, racial prejudices restrict people's’ natural right of the pursuit of happiness in America. They control what people of certain races can and cannot do because of what others think of their race. If the American Dream is the ability to do what you want and achieve success regardless of your background or class, but someone of one race cannot get a job because of the biases against their race, then the American Dream cannot truly be achieved.