The Tough Road to True Freedom

The Tough Road to True Freedom

The Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia in 1776 stated that all men are created equal. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provided all citizens the freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and the right to petition. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave the right to vote to all male American citizens, in spite of their color or race. Since then, the United States of America is known as one of the most democratic countries in the world, where many choose to go and pursue their dreams, because this is a place where all men are equal, and all men have the same powers and rights to fight for their future.

Yet, nothing is perfect. While this seemingly perfect disguise of America attracts most people, Ronald Takaki, who is a preeminent scholar of the United States’ diversity, looks deep into the hidden history of America, where he finds stories of serious racial discrimination, and evidences of inequality in this multicultural America. In his book, A Different Mirror, he tells us how different ethic groups struggle in the American society in the past that based on class and race, and also the way they fight against the disregarded, even distorted reality of them.

If we trace back to the World War II, when we look closely at the White Americans and African Americans, we can see things have started to change, and progress were made during and after the war. We can see important instances of connectedness and interdependence between them, in which caused the society that based on class and race, and also the disregarding of reality becoming less significant.

From treating African American as slave to adopt...

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..., discriminations everywhere they went, and finally they found a way out, with the help of the White Americans, who were originally the ones that discriminated against them. They fought for the human rights and democracy and we should give our full support to them. The world has changed, and the only way to survive in this multicultural America is to connect, depend and cooperate with different ethic groups, because as Takaki told President Clinton at the White House, “We will all be minorities”. (434) Therefore, with the sense of connectedness and interdependence between different ethic groups, we can all finally pursue our American Dreams equally without hurting one another, just like the last message quoted by Takaki from Langston Hughes: “Let America be America again...Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed...where equality is in the air we breathe.” (439)