Is America "America" today?

“Let America Be America Again” was written during the Great Depression, amidst an era of great disillusionment- by Langston Hughes, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance who endured rampant racism during his time living as a black man in the Jim Crow era of American history. Yet still, Hughes holds optimism in "Let America Be America Again", a certain patriotic belief that the America of his dreams can exist. The American Dream is bruised, he concurs, but he maintains an argument that through everything, it can be possible.

Nearly a century after the poem was written, has Hughes’ hopes for America been fulfilled? Or is Langston Hughes’ dream of America too idyllic? Is it impossible?

I think both are true, but more the latter. The "American Dream" that Hughes continually refers to has stayed the national ethos of America; the indoctrinated idea and pillar of American pride that in our country, success and hard work are proportionate. 

But the hyper-relevance of his poem is a reminder that even throughout periods of great social change and reckoning, the struggle has persisted. Hughes’ words transcend time- the mere fact that we read them in class proves it. And we can see in society today that discrimination and inequality are ever persistent- and our country remains polarized. For as much progress as we have made, the American dream has really only stayed an attainable reality for those of the upper class. Because of its selectiveness, its inequity, its injustice- the American dream is still all but a false mirage.