At one point in history, the southern half of the United States had laws stating that people with different skin colors couldn't play checkers together. Black people were kept separate but “equal.” The south even had two different Bibles for swearing–one for the hands of people of color, another for the hands of white people. So, eventually many people of color left; they migrated north. I would too. I’d leave a place that only saw me as forced labor. I’d leave a place where I was not seen as a person but as a pigment. No person in their right mind could judge someone leaving all they knew for hope of a better life; this is the American Dream, isn’t it?. But once someone other than a person with white skin embarks on the American Dream, does it suddenly become a pipe dream?
Equal but separate, what kind of society is that? The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American Dream as “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” What a beautiful sentiment. What a beautiful idea to wish upon all citizens. But this idea is enraptured by hate, corrupted by fear, and demolished by laws. I’ve felt the sweet pain of discrimination and it rots your thoughts like poison.
Humans with hopes, humans with dreams, humans with goals, humans with wants and needs. What a concept for us to discover. That the “other” is simply us. Laws are social constructs, ideas created by humans, fabricated mostly by fear of chaos. But chaos can be beautiful. Chaos can bind and create a more unified group. Society becomes closer after a disaster. It is the yin and the yang of the world. You cannot have something terrible happen without something good also happening. During the Great Migration, people left everything they knew and everyone they loved in hope of a better life. But what does it say about our society that our own citizens had to seek political asylum in other states just to feel safe? What does it say about the American Dream that even more laws were later created to suppress them? What does it say about America? What does it say about us?
I think about Heather McGhee, who writes in her book, The Sum of Us, “racism drained the pool.” She states that our society was so segregated we couldn’t swim together. She also states that white people are the most segregated in our society; they do not even know what is going on in their own country.
Equal but separate, what kind of society is that? The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American Dream as “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” What a beautiful sentiment. What a beautiful idea to wish upon all citizens. But this idea is enraptured by hate, corrupted by fear, and demolished by laws. I’ve felt the sweet pain of discrimination and it rots your thoughts like poison.
Humans with hopes, humans with dreams, humans with goals, humans with wants and needs. What a concept for us to discover. That the “other” is simply us. Laws are social constructs, ideas created by humans, fabricated mostly by fear of chaos. But chaos can be beautiful. Chaos can bind and create a more unified group. Society becomes closer after a disaster. It is the yin and the yang of the world. You cannot have something terrible happen without something good also happening. During the Great Migration, people left everything they knew and everyone they loved in hope of a better life. But what does it say about our society that our own citizens had to seek political asylum in other states just to feel safe? What does it say about the American Dream that even more laws were later created to suppress them? What does it say about America? What does it say about us?
I think about Heather McGhee, who writes in her book, The Sum of Us, “racism drained the pool.” She states that our society was so segregated we couldn’t swim together. She also states that white people are the most segregated in our society; they do not even know what is going on in their own country.
"The American Dream is a term coined by James Truslow Adams, a wealthy white man. I think about how this dream is a dream for the individual, not the collective."
I think about the ways people change the subject when I talk about racism in our country, how quickly people will say, “that was the past.” It is not the past. I think about George Floyd saying he can’t breathe, and I think he speaks for all people living in this atrocity. I think about how George Floyd had to die so we could no longer ignore racism in our country. I think about Claudia Rankine:
The body has memory. The physical carriages haul more than its weight. The body is the threshold across from which each objectionable call passes into consciousness—all the unintimidated, unblinking, and unflappable resilience does not erase the moments lived through, even as we are eternally or everlastingly optimistic, so ready to be inside, a part of the games.
I think of all the violence and pain that black people have suffered to try to live the American Dream, and how they still endure this pain. I think about Ruth Wilson Gilmore writing, “Capitalism enshrines racism.”
Then I think about the 2024 Grammy’s performance, Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman singing “Fast Car” together. I think about how clear it was that he idolizes her. It was a beautiful moment to watch. And I think that maybe art is a bridge. I think that maybe art is, and always has been, the catalyst to help us improve this world.
The American Dream is a term coined by James Truslow Adams, a wealthy white man. I think about how this dream is a dream for the individual, not the collective. Maybe it is time to rebrand the American Dream. Maybe the American Dream can be about creating beautiful things, together. Maybe the migration of six million black people from the South to the North was the beginning of a new dream for all Americans. Maybe this new dream can help us feel like we all belong. The new American Dream can be a dream we create for our future.
The body has memory. The physical carriages haul more than its weight. The body is the threshold across from which each objectionable call passes into consciousness—all the unintimidated, unblinking, and unflappable resilience does not erase the moments lived through, even as we are eternally or everlastingly optimistic, so ready to be inside, a part of the games.
I think of all the violence and pain that black people have suffered to try to live the American Dream, and how they still endure this pain. I think about Ruth Wilson Gilmore writing, “Capitalism enshrines racism.”
Then I think about the 2024 Grammy’s performance, Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman singing “Fast Car” together. I think about how clear it was that he idolizes her. It was a beautiful moment to watch. And I think that maybe art is a bridge. I think that maybe art is, and always has been, the catalyst to help us improve this world.
The American Dream is a term coined by James Truslow Adams, a wealthy white man. I think about how this dream is a dream for the individual, not the collective. Maybe it is time to rebrand the American Dream. Maybe the American Dream can be about creating beautiful things, together. Maybe the migration of six million black people from the South to the North was the beginning of a new dream for all Americans. Maybe this new dream can help us feel like we all belong. The new American Dream can be a dream we create for our future.
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About the Author
Mae Perrin is a first year transfer student studying to get a psychology degree and wrote this paper for AFRS 400. The paper was about The Great Migration. This paper was an encapsulation of the module on the Great Migration and some material from Crime and Justice 435. |