The Exclusivity of the American Dream

The Exclusivity of the American Dream The idea of the “American Dream” has been an ideal most notably tied with prosperity in the United States of America. An ideal that means with hard work, comes great amounts of success. An ideal that was written in the Declaration of Independence with such inclusivity that it suggests anyone, regardless of race, class, or gender is given a set of inalienable rights that will lead them to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While the text was written with seemingly inclusive intentions, the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Founding Fathers really meant that America was for them to prosper in. These so-called self-evident truths that “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable (sic) Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” (Declaration of Independence) became negotiable for whom these rights ACTUALLY applied to (white men who owned property), and it was not just anybody (freed black men, unfree black people, women, other minority groups). While a more equitable future has been shaped from the subtle exclusivity of yesteryear, there is still a battle to be fought in terms of everyone being able to reach the American Dream in all its intended glory of full democratic equity. While the country has made progress towards democratic equity, we just have to keep going further.