Essay 1 OP- ED

 The American dream for African Americans, What does it look like?

By Michael Ford 

The American dream is the idea that everyone is allowed to have a house with a white picket fence and the ability to enjoy their lives. Ideally, being that America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, this should be a reality for almost anyone. However, some people are not afforded the same advantages to achieve their dream. Considering the historical relationship between African Americans and America, what can be conceptualized as their American dream? To examine this relationship, we need to deep dive into the elements of the American dream.

The relationship between the United States and African Americans is long and well-documented. Systemic inequalities have hindered African Americans' progress in many areas, specifically financially. To examine whether the American Dream exists, we must examine one of America's most oppressed groups.

Does the American Dream still exist?

The idea that the American dream is alive depends on whom you ask. Most politicians harp on the notion that the American dream is alive and achievable for every American. Whether you agree or not, expressing the ideals of said dream harps back to freedoms afforded to Americans and can be used during political speeches.  Some would argue that it no longer exists and has no true merit to society. For this OP-ED, we will assume that the American Dream is alive. We will examine aspects of the American dream and how African Americans stack up financially.

 The American Dream Broken down financially:

For the parameters of this piece, we will be using the state of Maryland as the location of our home. According to a WTOP article published in May, the median price of a home in the state was 390,000 dollars.

Pictured above is the approximate mortgage rate in Maryland that is sold at $400k. Sourced from google. According to Google, the average household income in Maryland is just over 87K dollars.

A statistical graph from Statista shows that the average black household income is 49k dollars per year. Maryland's median household income is higher than the national median household income of about 71k. With this in mind, the median income for black residents in Maryland is roughly 60k dollars per year.

The Average Maryland housing cost is roughly 400k dollars, meaning the average Maryland family could barely afford our house. Factoring the presumed estimates of the median income of a black Maryland family, they could not afford our house in Maryland.

The African American Dream

Considering all our factors, what can we consider the African American dream? The idea of home ownership is seemingly becoming out of reach for most Americans, let alone African Americans. I believe that the American dream for African Americans is to have a life of comfort. To live a life of comfort is to live with bills paid and have money to spend on vacations and other luxuries. In addition, living a life of comfort can be seeking opportunities such as education or becoming an influential company leader without being limited based on race.  After hundreds of years of discrimination against African Americans, the idea of a house with a white picket fence seems secondary to having a life in which stress is not a factor.

So the essence of the American Dream is for African Americans is just to be.