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The American Dream That Never Was.

  • Writer: KenzieKait
    KenzieKait
  • Jul 31
  • 7 min read

The American dream is neither alive nor well and has never been. In the Declaration of Independence, a document signed in 1776 by the so-called founding fathers of the United States of America, includes the statement that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The fundamental question one must ask themselves is who this document was written for. Thomas Jefferson states in the preamble that he represents "we the people of the United States." However, in 1776, those who were not of English descendent were not considered people at all.


I will discuss below several groups that exist within the United States of America that have been denied this American dream "that anyone — no matter their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, family wealth, class, etc. —  who works hard can get ahead and live a happy and prosperous life."


Before the Americans declared their independence from the English, colonizers were exploring the Americas. In what is now known as the United States, Native American communities thrived and lived in a wide range of environments from shore to shore. Each tribe had a distinct culture from the rest, and they lived in harmony. Once the colonizers took over the land through brunt force, Native Americans were not seen as people but as primitives. In 1786, the United States established its first Native American reservation, only allowing Native Americans to have a small section of what was originally their home. Fourteen months after President Andrew Jackson's speech that was supposed to give "humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants," he passed the Removal Act that forced Native Americans to settle in the Indian Territory of the Mississippi River. In 1838, federal soldiers forcibly relocated the Cherokees while hunting, imprisoning, assaulting, and murdering Cherokees in the process. By 1868, Native Americans were still not allowed to vote but expected to sign agreements to establish Native American reservations on their own homeland. Several armed conflicts occurred between the U.S. government and Native Americans including the disaster at Wounded Knee where Native people were massacred. The U.S. government banned Native traditions such as the Ghost Dance and forced children into boarding schools that forbade them from speaking Native languages, renounced Native beliefs, and forced children to abandon their identities, including their names.


In 1619, the White Lion brought the first batch of Africans from their home to be enslaved under the colonists. It is estimated that American slave traders transported nearly 12.5 million enslaved Africans to the United States. This number does not encompass the Africans who had already been traveling along the transatlantic world on their own boats starting as early as the 1500s and most likely from much before that were now trapped in slavery far from home. White slaveowners engaged in several atrocities, such as branding slaves with burns, performing surgeries on enslaved women without anesthesia, cooking and eating dead slaves, raping African women, using the flesh of dead slaves to make accessories, separating families, lynching,  and more. After slavery, African Americans were put down by Jim Crow laws that aimed at undermining the African American community. Some of these laws included that "A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape." Legislation passed other laws that restricted Black people from voting, serving in local militias, or attending public schools. To combat this, Black Americans had to make their own organizations. White Americans discriminated against Black Americans and did not offer them employment or allow them to spend money in businesses that they owned.  When Black Americans attempted to build their own communities, they were massacred just as hey were in the Tulsa Massacre.  The Ku Klux Klan was formed to torture and eliminate the African American race. To this day, a Black person is five times more likely to be stopped without just cause by the police than a White person. According to the NAACP, "65% of Black adults have felt targeted because of their race." Throughout the United States history, African Americans were not offered the same resources as European Americans.


Women were also refused basic rights in the United States for quite some time. From 1776 until 1837 women were refused formal education. The Married Women's Property Act of 1839 considered women property, not people, under their husbands. The 1872 court case of Bradwell v. Illinois confirmed that states have the authority to exclude women from certain professions. Up until 1920, women were not allowed to vote. The 19th amendment only ensured that women could not be denied voting rights "on the account of sex. " This did not stop the government from discriminating against women of color or low-income. Until 1963, women were able to receive less pay than men on the basis of sex. In 1973, women were given the right to have an abortion but this right has been revoked as of recent. In the patriarchal society we live in, gender structures are established that lead to sexism. According to Medica Mondiale, "women and girls between 15 and 44, the risk of experiencing rape and violence within their family is higher than risk of becoming a victim of a traffic accident, war, cancer or malaria." Sexism is extremely closely related to the power struggle of men. Women are often subject to humiliation, sexual harassment, and bullying. The Gender Equality Law Center collected several common stereotypes that women face. This includes " Victims of intimate partner violence are weak because they stay in the relationship, There is something wrong with a woman who doesn’t want children, Assertive women are unfeminine and are "bossy," "bitches” or “whores”, Women are natural nurturers; men are natural leaders, Women don’t need equal pay because they are supported by their husbands, Women who appear less feminine or reject advances from men are lesbians, Women with children are less devoted to their jobs, Men who spend time with family are less masculine and poor breadwinners, In heterosexual couples, women should take time off to care for children or elders, Men who are not aggressive and/or assertive are unmanly and likely gay, Same-sex couples cannot make good parents, A transgender or gender non-confirming person is profoundly wrong, Women are too emotional to undertake certain kinds of work, especially while pregnant, Men are too impersonal and not emotionally apt to take on tasks 'better done by women'."


In 1779, Thomas Jefferson proposed Virginia law to make sodomy punishable by mutilation rather than death. Though this was rejected, the founding fathers clearly did not think that members of the queer community should be protected. In 1796, New Jersey passed "An Act for the Punishment of Crimes" that made sodomy punishable by fine and solitary confinement. In 1798, an individual's second sexual offense in Rhode Island could be punishable by death. The 20th century included more explicit rather than convert attempts to criminalize homosexuality. Sodomy laws were expanded and 'witch hunts' of homosexual men ensued. In the 1950's, cases fought to challenge the office seizures of lesbian and gay publications that were marked as "obscene." Also in the 50's, the Lavender Scare took place where several thousands of LGBTQ+ people were fired or threatened to resign from jobs in the federal government. LGBTQ+ people were unfairly seen as "sex perverts" and banned from federal employment in 1953. According to the FBI, "there were 1,950 recorded incidents relating to an alleged victim’s sexual orientation in 2024 and 463 relating to an alleged victim’s gender identity." A study by the National Library of Medicine shows that "Experiences of interpersonal discrimination were common for LGBTQ adults, including slurs (57 percent), microaggressions (53 percent), sexual harassment (51 percent), violence (51 percent), and harassment regarding bathroom use (34 percent). More than one in six LGBTQ adults also reported avoiding health care due to anticipated discrimination (18 percent), including 22 percent of transgender adults, while 16 percent of LGBTQ adults reported discrimination in health care encounters."


I've on talked about a few groups that are impacted negatively in the United States of America. Others such as Hispanic people, Asian people, disabled people, and more experience a negative American experience everyday. The evidence that I've stated shows that this American dream "that anyone — no matter their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, family wealth, class, etc. —  who works hard can get ahead and live a happy and prosperous life," is false. For many communities it has simply never existed.





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