Can You “Make It” In America?
I have financial struggles- struggles that most college students can definitely admit to. I often struggle with balancing my money, and paying for any food I need for the week, and I oftentimes fear how much debt I’ll actually be in by the time I officially earn my degree. However, although college financial fear is something both normalized and expected, is the fear of being financially unstable forever the same? Consistently, I find myself sitting and pondering if I will truly be able to make it in the world and consistently, I find many of my fellow friends in the same mindset.
I can’t help but examine this anxiety and compare it to the concept of the “American Dream,” an idea that within America you can achieve anything. However, James Baldwin, a renowned American writer, often argued that the American Dream was merely one of illusions; and that it did not exist for those of marginalized groups. When debating the concept at the University of Cambridge in England, Baldwin argued that “There is scarcely any hope for the American dream, because the people who are denied participation in it, by their very presence, will wreck it.” He explicitly relates this to African Americans, as many patterns of the “American Dream” ultimately aim to discourage and build upon the struggles of those from marginalized group– therefore solely benefiting the ideal American (White, wealthy, male, and straight).
Although this was discussed by Baldwin in 1956, I argue many of these claims ring true today. “Making it in America” does not exist within the subliminal expectations of “The American Dream.” And, for almost every single American citizen alive right now, the illusions of successful living under American values cannot exist unless you fit within its certain guidelines. Can you survive in America, even now? Yes. But can you live within it? If you are not rich, wealthy, male, and white- no.
