Why Gen Z Must Question the “American Dream”
A common story heard by children of immigrants is how hard our parents worked to come to the United States and how hard they have worked ever since immigrating to achieve the proverbial “American Dream.” The lesson from these stories, whether implicit or explicit, is to be grateful for our parents’ sacrifices so we could obtain a better life and to work just as hard as they did towards success.
Recently, however, some of us have begun to question that narrative, asking “What does success mean?” and “What is the American Dream?” Questioning what we have been taught from a young age is not meant to disrespect the hard work done by our families and ancestors, rather it invites us to consider how our individual stories are all part of something larger–that is, the global ramifications of European colonialism–and thus must be positioned as such.
Immigrant rights march for amnesty in downtown Los Angeles, California on May Day, 2006.
Since its inception, the U.S. has championed itself as exceptional, or, as former President Ronald Reagan described it in Puritanical terms, a “shining city on a hill.” American exceptionalism is a political theory that proclaims the U.S. is a unique force for benevolent leadership in global affairs due to its foundational, democratic values. This view ignores how the U.S. became the richest and most powerful country in the world and does not address the true reason why so many migrate to this country.
First, much of the wealth in the U.S. was founded upon the labor of enslaved people kidnapped from the continent of Africa and the expropriated lands of Indigenous peoples, who were then killed or forcefully assimilated into settler-colonies. The exploitation of colonies that provided the wealth for Europe and the Americas boosted the abilities of these nations to industrialize and further profit from global racial capitalism.
At the end of World War II, the U.S. was left relatively unscathed compared to the rest of the world, particularly Europe, and controlled much of the global economy. After the defeat of the fascist Axis powers, the U.S. deemed itself the “leader of the free world,” ignoring that the vast majority of fighting and sacrifice was made by the Soviets. Thus, the torch of imperialism was passed on to the U.S. as the empires of Europe crumbled.
The U.S. was able to construct the promise of a middle-class life, primarily for white families, through New Deal programs and the U.S. military-industrial complex (which constituted 38 percent of the world’s military spending in 2019). This post-World War II era brought about the global domination of the USAmerican Empire with the largest, most pervasive military the world has ever seen, catalyzing the grand strategy of destroying all liberation movements which sought independence from the capitalist system.
As the sole imperial power of the world, the consequences of U.S. intervention within these movements for independence and decolonization was war, poverty, coups, dictatorships, corruption and misery for those under imperialist control. It is only a natural instinct to migrate away from such hardship in order to survive. This is why, for example, the U.S.-Mexico border is a site of ongoing humanitarian crises today, primarily due to the fact that Central America has faced U.S. intervention for decades which has directly contributed to the people of this region’s migration to the U.S.
While our lives consist of many individual actions and choices, the American Dream and immigration must be put into this larger perspective of global history so as to understand why the U.S. has been deemed the “land of opportunity” and “leader of the free world.” With this contextual analysis in mind, it is easier to understand how many young people today do not have the same perspective on what the American Dream means as previous generations. The power of the U.S. seems hollow after living through endless wars, startling wealth-inequality, epidemic-levels of gun violence and the disastrous 2008 and 2020 recessions, the latter brought about by a pandemic that showed how severely inadequate the country’s public health system is, evidenced by the thousands of preventable deaths we collectively mourn.
The toxic culture of American exceptionalism and individualism that has destroyed nations around the world and caused our families to migrate “for a better life” is the same culture that leaves young people feeling unhappy and unfulfilled in our own personal lives. The U.S. has long maintained a façade that there is opportunity for monetary success here, ignoring the violent reality of stolen wealth, labor and land. This façade can only remain upheld for so long, as more young people are beginning to witness its deterioration due to our material conditions, or the physical basis for social reality, which vary greatly from generations before us.
