Faade of the American Dream Essay

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The Façade of the American Dream is the main theme of Ta Nahesi Coates Between The World And Me as is made clear through the struggles the main character faces in the book.

What is the American Dream? Peace, prosperity, possession of property, freedom from want, from fear. Who has possessed it? The reality, as Ta-Nahesi Coates points out in his book Between the World and Me, is that the Dream is possessed by very few people—by, in fact, the elite class that runs America and that is responsible for developing and maintaining its systems and structures. The problem with addressing this reality is that all too often people attack the system and the structure as though it developed all by itself. Far less often do people actually name the names of the people responsible for its erection—people like Margaret Sanger, the original American eugenicist, who sought the destruction of the black population through the use of birth control (Franks). Sanger stated as much in her own papers that the purpose of her mission was the sterilization of the black population. Sanger was of that elite class of American citizens who attacked ethnic groups behind a façade of good intentions. Birth control, everyone was told, would allow people to be sexually liberated, to be free from the consequences of sex. Some of the consequences of sex are family, fatherhood, motherhood, responsibility, duty, community. The idea that the consequences of sex are something to be avoided should be met with hostility by any morally right-thinking individual (Jones). Unfortunately, these realities are passed over, even by Ta-Nehisi in his book. There is never a mention of Sanger, the birth control movement, or even sexual liberation. Instead, all that comes across is anger and frustration directed towards the system and structures. But this is insufficient for any serious discussion about the problems that America faces. All it does is simply play upon the emotions without directing the head towards the real people and the real groups responsible for perpetrating atrocities. This is no way to break through the façade of the American Dream.

Coates situates his anger within emotional, visceral, sensational terms. He states, for instance, that “to be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease” (17). The elements of the world are ugly and violent—there is nothing else described.

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Why such a cruel and visceral rendering? Did Coates grow up in a drug den? If so, how did he manage to escape and become educated? Yet those elements that surely must…

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…from want, or freedom from fear. Fear, want—these are part of the human experience. The lie that the elite ruling class gets people to believe is that materialism is the solution to all one’s problems. This lie echoes the lie of Marx, that revolution is required if one is ever going to get his share of the pie. The American Dream cannot be accomplished without a spiritual solution. The reason so many people gravitated to MLK was because he represented that spiritual solution for them. He was not simply talking about reparations or challenging the status quo or deconstructing systems. He represented Christ for many people. It was the same with Malcolm X. He also represented a spiritual solution, albeit within a different spiritual system. He represented Islam and devoted himself to the principles of Islam and won the respect of many as a result. But the same outcome occurred: he was shot dead. The point is that people have to look within and look at those who are fanning the flames of fantasy, who are trying to prevent people from being fully human. Everyone can see who the elites are today: but too few people name them because naming them puts one on their hit list. People would rather continue focusing their anger on the systems and structures, as Coates does—because….....

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