An immigrant woman travels 3000 miles in search of a chance. She hoped for a future in America, the home of Lady Liberty, democracy and equality. New beginnings for everyone, regardless of where they came from; the “American Dream” that had been promised to her by all the newspapers and media she’d seen.
Yet, she finds herself deserted by employers, left at the bottom without the means to help herself out, while everyone around her seems to flourish smoothly. She can’t tell what the difference in their approaches is. Perhaps there is none.
This experience is not just a hypothetical; immigrants and those born in the U.S. alike continue to be fooled by two words that appear in countless advertisements and speeches: the “American Dream.” It’s what politicians vow to carry out, what we Americans love to characterize our country with, but everything seems to show that it’s never been made real.
The concept first officially appeared in the Declaration of Independence as the Founding Fathers claimed the equal right of men to “the pursuit of Happiness.” It wasn’t until 1931 that James Truslow Adams officially coined the phrase in his book The Epic of America: the “American Dream.”
Fundamentally, it means that any American can achieve success and get ahead, regardless of their background (an ideal preached by a group of white, wealthy men, named by another white, wealthy man—a demographic of people whose ability to guarantee such a thing should be questioned). Yet it seems nearly a century later, it’s still just a dream, never having been made a reality.
From the beginning, those born into poverty start ten steps behind. According to the Urban Institute, while 75 percent of those who have never experienced poverty were in school or working between the ages of twenty-five and thirty, only 34 percent of persistently poor adults were the same. Furthermore, at the most selective schools in the country, 72 percent of freshmen are from the top socioeconomic quartile, but merely 3 percent come from the lowest.
The disparity is not just a coincidence; the majority of colleges in the U.S. are aware of a student’s financial situation during the admissions process. Institutions looking to make money aren’t jumping to select those who need assistance, no matter their capabilities. Moreover, kids who grow up poor, who can’t afford a thousand extracurricular activities or a sparkling display of APs, simply don’t have the same chance anyway. Without higher education, the likelihood of landing a job to take them out of poverty is low.
Past economic status, those whose race, gender and identity differ from Truslow’s continue to get overlooked. In an experiment called “Are Emily and Brendan more employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” researchers found that job applicants with white-sounding names were 50 percent more likely to get a callback than those with African-American-sounding ones. Polished resumés clad with achievements mattered less when paired with a different skin color, taking away even the chance for another interview.
Women, too, are victims of inequality in the workplace. Globally, 30 percent fewer women participate in the labor force than men, and those who do still face the gender pay gap. Women are paid less than men at every level of academic standing, earning an average hourly wage of 81 cents per dollar made by men. Their gender has made them less worthy to employers, less deserving than their male counterparts. Still, people wonder why it’s difficult for them to be as accomplished. The American Dream seems like something of a nightmare.
Similar treatment is shown to members of the LGBTQ+ community. Estimates say 30 percent of transgender workers have been “fired, denied a promotion, or experienced another form of workplace mistreatment” solely because of their identity, and survey data shows 33 percent of LGBTQ+ employees have chosen to leave their jobs because of such abuse. While discrimination is illegal, it isn’t always something that can be measured or controlled, and so long as it exists, there will be somebody receiving the short end of the stick.
So, who does this equal-opportunity, equal-rights ideal apply to? Certainly not to “every American” as we claim. Not to the kids under the poverty line who were born behind the starting point, not to the minorities who struggle to find a job in a market of white supremacy, not to the women and LGBTQ+ individuals who are denied recognition everywhere they go.
We can be ignorant as high schoolers in a town as diverse as Brookline. We can look back to the time of segregation, the time without women’s suffrage and same-sex marriage, and feel satisfied that yes, America has come far. Because unequal opportunities in the workfield may not have an evident effect on us yet, we overlook them. But as the future generation of adults, we’ll be forced to confront this issue eventually, and by then, it will be too late. This is not an outside problem; it’s one that festers in our family, friends and in ourselves.
I’ve witnessed such barriers in professional success firsthand with my mom, the first woman of her school to get tenure and the only female full professor, who still comes home with the same feeling of being ignored that is echoed by many others. For over a decade, she was paid 15 percent less than others in her same position, until the new dean performed an equity review. Even locally, the truth is apparent, and the next one to get screwed over could be you.
Implicit bias and lack of resources deny hard work at every step of the way. Despite what people claim, it’s hard to gain equal footing when not dealt the right cards, and even harder to get ahead. This affects those born into poverty, those who are minorities, queer and more, every single day. We have created this country into one where our citizens are pushed to the margins and never given the same chance to succeed, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Such a large-scale problem seems entirely too big for us, but change can begin as small as in your backyard. Participate in pride marches, support women’s rights foundations and start fundraisers to help students struggling financially. Push equity and fight discrimination when you see it close. At least, don’t parade around the goodness of our land when it isn’t true yet. Since its creation in 1931, the term “American Dream” has never left the page, and it’s precisely our American fault.
