Bashing the Hand that Feeds You

I have to shake my head when someone immigrates to America and then proceeds to bash the American dream — especially when they seem to be living it.

The Daily Tar Heel, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus publication, recently ran a column called “The story of America is a lie.” It was written by Chiraayu Gosrani, a native Kenyan who immigrated to the United States when he was just 4 years old, and is now a student at the prestigious state university.

Gosrani writes: “The American Dream is a lie. The United States was founded upon a process of colonial settlement, racial genocide and territorial acquisition. Settlement of the Americas was motivated by sovereignty over land and indigenous people and the wealth and power associated with both.”

I hope Gosrani isn’t a history major, because he fails to understand the historical context that he writes about. It wasn’t “America” that had the problem of conquest and disease. This was the norm across the globe. And while “normality” doesn’t make something moral or right, it does make his specific prejudice to America unfounded. When you understand the historical context, you see American conquest was no more evil than any other conquest during the prior centuries.

Unlike other nations, the United States has since overcome and abolished such brutality, inequity, slavery. We are now a civilized society that respects individual liberty, property rights and economic value. We can thank capitalism for this, because capitalism forces the worst of people to get along in society and provide value to others if they want to get ahead. Instead of brute force and conquest, we now trade freely in a way beneficial to both sides.

A New York Times poll found that only 64 percent of those surveyed still believe the American dream exists. According to another poll, 63 percent of college students say the American dream is dead. But I do not believe that this is in relation to Gosrani’s faulty history. Rather, it is because the American principles Gosrani bashes have been stifled under big government and therefore make pursuing “the American dream” more difficult.

The moment our nation decide to demonize capitalism will be the moment the American dream dies. Of course, Gosrani is already pushing for this. “Consequently, slavery and settler colonialism are inextricably linked, as both seep through the same veins of capitalism and white supremacy,” he writes.

Gosrani tries to tie capitalism, one of the greatest wonders of the world, to white supremacy, one of the most evil notions in history.

Gosrani tries to tie capitalism, one of the greatest wonders of the world, to white supremacy, one of the most evil notions in history. I also hope he is not an economics major, because it is pure, unfettered capitalism that wipes out racism, a fact even an Econ 101 student would know. Americans vote with their dollars, and openly racist businesses would surely be boycotted and economically ruined.

Capitalism helped obviate the need for slavery. New farming technology was created in a competitive, need-based market. In return, the farming technology took the place of slaves, making forced labor obsolete. Today, it is capitalism that eradicates poverty. The American “poor” would be considered wealthy in other parts of the globe that limit, regulate, and burden the economic market.

We know America made its mistakes. All nations do. But within the past 300 years, the United States crafted mankind’s greatest representative government, made uncanny technological advances in the sciences and industry, became the most compassionate and giving nation in the world, and rose to be a beacon of freedom and opportunity across the world. This is what has driven millions of immigrants to our shores and will continue to do so.

This includes Gosrani’s parents, something he seems to ignore. Someone should remind Gosrani to check his historical privilege. It’s easy to criticize those who lived centuries before you while living in a country that welcomed you with open arms.

This piece is part of a CampusZette series exploring the culture, oddities, and experiences of students on college campuses through their eyes.