• "America never was America to me" - People left out by the American Dream
  • anonym
  • 06.09.2025
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1st re­a­ding: Sum­ma­ri­se the spe­a­ker's key messa­ge in one or two sen­ten­ces.
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Work sta­ti­ons:
  • Sta­ti­on A: The­mes and Per­spec­ti­ves
  • Sta­ti­on B: Lan­guage and Sty­li­stic De­vices
  • Sta­ti­on C: Struc­tu­re and Com­po­si­ti­on
  • Sta­ti­on D: His­to­ri­cal Con­text and Re­le­van­ce Today

Let Ame­ri­ca be Ame­ri­ca again by Langston Hug­hes (1935).

Let Ame­ri­ca be Ame­ri­ca again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pi­o­neer on the plain

See­king a home where he hims­elf is free.



(Ame­ri­ca never was Ame­ri­ca to me.) [...]



O, let my land be a land where Li­ber­ty

Is crow­ned with no false pa­tri­otic wre­ath1,

But op­por­tu­ni­ty is real, and life is free,

Equa­li­ty is in the air we brea­the.



(There's never been equa­li­ty for me,

Nor free­dom in this home­land of the free.)



Say, who are you that mum­bles2 in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil3 across the stars?



I am the poor white, foo­led and pu­shed apart,

I am the Negro bea­ring slavery's scars.

I am the red man4 dri­ven from the land,

I am the im­mi­grant clut­ching5 the hope I seek—

And fin­ding only the same old stu­pid plan

Of dog eat dog, of migh­ty crush the weak. [...]



I am the far­mer, bonds­man6 to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the ma­chi­ne.

I am the Negro, ser­vant to you all.

I am the people, hum­ble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today de­spi­te the dream.

Be­a­ten yet today—O, Pi­o­neers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poo­rest worker bar­te­red7 th­rough the years.



Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its migh­ty dar­ing sings

In every brick and stone, in every fur­row8 tur­ned

That's made Ame­ri­ca the land it has be­co­me.

O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas

In se­arch of what I meant to be my home—

For I'm the one who left dark Ire­land's shore,

And Poland's plain, and Eng­land's gras­sy lea9,

And torn from Black Afri­ca's strand10 I came

To build a home­land of the free.

Let Ame­ri­ca be Ame­ri­ca again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pi­o­neer on the plain

See­king a home where he hims­elf is free.



(Ame­ri­ca never was Ame­ri­ca to me.) [...]



O, let my land be a land where Li­ber­ty

Is crow­ned with no false pa­tri­otic wre­ath1,

But op­por­tu­ni­ty is real, and life is free,

Equa­li­ty is in the air we brea­the.



(There's never been equa­li­ty for me,

Nor free­dom in this home­land of the free.)



Say, who are you that mum­bles2 in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil3 across the stars?



I am the poor white, foo­led and pu­shed apart,

I am the Negro bea­ring slavery's scars.

I am the red man4 dri­ven from the land,

I am the im­mi­grant clut­ching5 the hope I seek—

And fin­ding only the same old stu­pid plan

Of dog eat dog, of migh­ty crush the weak. [...]



I am the far­mer, bonds­man6 to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the ma­chi­ne.

I am the Negro, ser­vant to you all.

I am the people, hum­ble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today de­spi­te the dream.

Be­a­ten yet today—O, Pi­o­neers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poo­rest worker bar­te­red7 th­rough the years.



Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its migh­ty dar­ing sings

In every brick and stone, in every fur­row8 tur­ned

That's made Ame­ri­ca the land it has be­co­me.

O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas

In se­arch of what I meant to be my home—

For I'm the one who left dark Ire­land's shore,

And Poland's plain, and Eng­land's gras­sy lea9,

And torn from Black Afri­ca's strand10 I came

To build a home­land of the free.

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The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?

Su­re­ly not me?  The mil­li­ons on re­li­ef11 today?

The mil­li­ons shot down when we strike?

The mil­li­ons who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we've drea­med

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The mil­li­ons who have nothing for our pay—

Ex­cept the dream that's al­most dead today.



O, let Ame­ri­ca be Ame­ri­ca again—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every man is free.

The land that's mine—the poor man's, In­di­an's, Negro's, ME—

Who made Ame­ri­ca,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the found­ry12, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our migh­ty dream again.



Sure, call me any ugly name you choo­se—

The steel of free­dom does not stain.

From those who live like lee­ches on the people's lives,

We must take back our land again,

Ame­ri­ca!



O, yes,

I say it plain,

Ame­ri­ca never was Ame­ri­ca to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

Ame­ri­ca will be!



Out of the rack and ruin of our gangs­ter death,

The rape and rot of graft13, and ste­alth, and lies,

We, the people, must re­deem

The land, the mines, the plants, the ri­vers.

The moun­tains and the end­less plain—

All, all the stretch of these great green sta­tes—

And make Ame­ri­ca again!

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?

Su­re­ly not me?  The mil­li­ons on re­li­ef11 today?

The mil­li­ons shot down when we strike?

The mil­li­ons who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we've drea­med

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The mil­li­ons who have nothing for our pay—

Ex­cept the dream that's al­most dead today.



O, let Ame­ri­ca be Ame­ri­ca again—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every man is free.

The land that's mine—the poor man's, In­di­an's, Negro's, ME—

Who made Ame­ri­ca,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the found­ry12, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our migh­ty dream again.



Sure, call me any ugly name you choo­se—

The steel of free­dom does not stain.

From those who live like lee­ches on the people's lives,

We must take back our land again,

Ame­ri­ca!



O, yes,

I say it plain,

Ame­ri­ca never was Ame­ri­ca to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

Ame­ri­ca will be!



Out of the rack and ruin of our gangs­ter death,

The rape and rot of graft13, and ste­alth, and lies,

We, the people, must re­deem

The land, the mines, the plants, the ri­vers.

The moun­tains and the end­less plain—

All, all the stretch of these great green sta­tes—

And make Ame­ri­ca again!

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word count: 552



1wre­ath Kranz - 2to mum­ble tal­king in an un­clear man­ner - 3veil Schlei­er - 4red man an old-​fashioned and now of­fen­si­ve term for a per­son of Na­ti­ve Ame­ri­can ori­gin - 5to clutch to take hold of sth. tight­ly -

6bonds­man slave- 7to bar­ter here: sel­ling so­me­thing for cheap - 8fur­row Acker­fur­che - 9lea Aue - 10strand here: shore - 11on re­li­ef re­cei­ving un­em­p­loy­ment be­ne­fit - 12found­ry Me­tall­gie­ße­rei - 13graft - Be­stechung

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