The American Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

…Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

~ Langston Hughes, "Harlem"

Dreams figure prominently in the poetry of Langston Hughes; not just in "Harlem," but poems like "Dreams" and "Dream Variations." So doesAmerica and, in fact, the American Dream. In poems like "I, Too, Sing America," Hughes lays claim to American identity denied to him as a black man. Hughes acknowledges that denial, writing "I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen, When company comes," but follows it up with a promise: "Tomorrow, I'll be at the table."  

Having laid claim to American identity, Hughes goes on to claim the American Dream itself in "Let America Be America Again." Though it starts out identifying that dream with  "the pioneer on the plain, seeking a home where he himself is free," Hughes is really writing a poem with two voices; one that trumpets the conventional American Dream, and another that mutters in parenthesis "America was never America to me."

The muttering, signifying voice, gains strength and takes over the narrative as it bursts forth with a roll call of "those to whom it doesn't belong, and for whom it was never intended," clearly connecting the plight of African African Americans to those of poor whites, workers, immigrants, Native Americans, etc.

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--
And then run? …

~ Langton Hughes, "Harlem"

Whose Dream?

Since Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, literary critics have tried to identify the dream Hughes wrapped in his inscrutable verse. Some suggest Hughes makes a veiled reference to his alleged homosexuality; which Hughes would have concealed in order to keep the support of African American churches and organizations.

Others insist Hughes gave voice to the disillusionment and frustrations of African Americans. Ninety years after the civil war, African Americans had seen the dreams crushed by continuing prejudice and post-Civil War legislation designed to disenfranchise and marginalize them. In 1951, African Americans lived on the cusp of two civil rights movements. The first, from 1896 to 1954, was bookended by two Supreme Court rulings —Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld "separate but equal" racial segregation, and the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which overturned Plessy.

What we know as the modern civil rights movement spanned from 1955, after the Court's Brown decision, to 1968 and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Like the earlier movement, from which it grew, the new movement fought to expose and end the violence, discrimination and disenfranchisement many blacks lived under, especially in the south.

But, Martin Luther King, Jr, — through events like the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike, and the Poor People's Campaign — envisioned an even broader phase of the civil rights movement that put racial injustice in the context of economic injustice. Less than a week before his assassination in Memphis, King gave voice to that vision, in a speech at the National Cathedral, titled "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution."

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Langston Hughes once asked, "What happens to a dream deferred?"; a rhetorical question answered with still more questions. The current economic crisis raises a similar question: What's happened to the American Dream? According to a recent survey, less than one-third of us are confident of reaching "the American Dream."

The survey is a depressing review of how people view their situation and the nation in general. Among the findings:

-- Only 23 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction with 67 percent saying "things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track."

-- Just 27 percent say they are "extremely confident" of reaching the American Dream, down from 40 percent a year ago.

-- 78 percent say they have less trust in government.

-- 69 percent feel it will be harder to reach the American Dream than it was for their parents; 73 percent say it will be still harder for their children or grandchildren to reach the American Dream.

-- 23 percent believe America is a country on the rise, down from 32 percent last year. Only 39 percent believe America represents the future, with 57 percent saying that the world looks to other nations now. And 52 percent say it's China that represents the future.

Most of us feel it's out of reach, and our kids have even less of a shot at it. Can you blame us? Financial gurus like Suze Orman declare the American Dream DOA and advise us to get used to it. The Republican budget that all but finishes it off. If the American Dream isn't dead it's at least in the ICU, and the priest has been paged.

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