The “American Dream” is a beautiful story that inspired millions of immigrants to leave their homes, hoping to secure a better economic future and freedoms for their families and future generations.
It’s a story that features the Statue of Liberty, welcoming the huddled masses and the oppressed to her shores with the promise that if you work hard and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, then you, too, can succeed regardless of your ethnicity, religion, or gender.
For many, this dream became a reality. But this dream also ignores many uncomfortable truths that whitewash our nation’s history of colonization, racism, and cruelty. The streets of America are paved with gold for a few, but with the blood of the masses. But we need these stories because they make us feel comfortable, and they help us avoid accountability and reform.
One such story is “The Lost Cause,” which has been transformed into MAGA. The racist, treasonous enslavers who LOST the Civil War should not be maligned as the villains of history. They are simply trying to preserve and restore their glorious heritage. Let’s just ignore the chattel slavery that went along with it. Let’s also ignore white supremacy, corruption, rape, torture, and unfettered capitalism that allowed the rich to thrive at the expense of the many. In fact, let’s ban books and museums that offend the hurt feelings of those who are more offended by slogans and protests than an actual genocide.
The best way to ensure the status quo that maintains these systems of oppression is to create and mainstream popular stories that can entertain, confuse, and lead people to vote against their own interests. We give them a convenient villain, who can always be replaced. We start with Black “savages,” and then once in a while we can switch it up with “invading” immigrants, violent Muslims, and deviant transgender people who are simply trying to survive.
We can also provide the masses with a convenient, magic story to make them feel like they’re actually allies and not responsible for being complicit in these ongoing institutional sins. They can be the “good” minority or the “good” white person who has a Black and brown friend.
See? It’s easy! So, just stop whining and complaining about racism, which is so 20th century, and move on from these grievances, OK?
Sound familiar? That’s an enduring myth and story of America to keep us divided and unable to confront the very real, uncomfortable truths about our history.
Greg Garrett’s latest book, * White Lies: Dismantling 10 Cultural Myths About Race*, explores how these lies still exist and fuel the rise of white Christian nationalists, racists, and the Trump presidency.
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