American Dream Equality

Rachael Guster
Eng101-36
10-20-2010 Equality, the American dream

What is the American dream? The American dream to me is about equality. People have been wanting, fighting to be equal for many years, and it has turned into a game of tug-of-war. Today, people have made progress in treating other people equally, but we have to look at the timeline of what we went through to get to where we are today.
In the 1770’s, when there were only thirteen colonies to America, people were not treated equally, because they did not have rights. The people were ruled by King George the third and were still considered a part of England. The king was a tyrant, refusing to listen to his people, taking away their simplest
rights by not giving them a government or allowing them to trade with any part of the world, and imposing taxes on the people without their consent; these were just a few of the horrible things the king did to his people. Finally, a man named Thomas Jefferson, who was a delegate to the second continental congress, decided to write the Declaration of Independence to make the thirteen colonies into the United States of America, to separate them from England, so that the people could have rights.
In 1776, the people who live within the colonies finally control America: they have rights, soon a government, and laws.
The people are finally being heard, treated like people, only to become hypocrites for over two hundred years. This naturally slowed our progress to having equality, with an issue called racism. Colonists from America brought people of color from Africa to the states and in return took all their rights, their freewill. It is ironic: the colonists took the African Americans rights after bringing them to America, which was the same thing, the king did to the colonists when they moved to America; history always has a way of repeating
itself.
African American slaves was degraded to the level of cattle, having their simplest rights taken from them such as learning to read and write, just because the color of their skin was different.
The African Americans slaves were ripped from their families, and sold to white people to do their labor. The slaveholders would beat the African American slaves with whips like animals, and treated them with no means of humanity. A man named David Walker who was an early black abolitionist, born a free African American, wrote an article called Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America. He talked about how African American slaves were treated far worse than slaves of earlier times, how God created every man equal, he rebuttal this claim in his writing saying,” Are we men? Did our creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not dying worms as well as we?” Walker said this to empower African American slaves to stand up for themselves, to see their selves as equals to everyone, no matter what color. We have made progress, dealing with Racism; however, we are still fighting the issue
today. Color is not the only thing that keeps us from equality; gender has been a problem for many years especially with jobs. Most jobs paid men more money than women, which lead way for the equal pay act of 1963. In business, people call this looking at a glass ceiling. Unfortunately, men still get paid 77% more than women do, and black women get even less then white women, statistics show.
Age is another discriminating issue that is affecting people in our present day. Years ago, older adults use to get a lot more jobs vs. younger adults 18-20, because were looked at not having enough experience to do the job. In 1967, the Age Discrimination Act was signed, hoping that younger adults could work at the same jobs as older adults. Miles down the road; it eventually did a three-sixty, causing older adults not to be able to find work due to being “over experience” or the job not giving any benefits. Now, you mostly see older adults working at fast food places for the rest of their days with no chance to retire.
We have been dealing with issues that have been blocking us people, from our equality, not only in the past, but also even now in our present. Our lives have been altering on a daily basis because of these issues. It is irrational to think that people would not like you or me because of the color of our skin, or because I am a woman; I would be paid less at the same job then a man, and One day my age might affect what job I could have. Will we ever consider ourselves equal to one another? The American dream will never exist for some people, but for many others, equality is the American dream.