American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States is different from other nations in terms of its ideals, historical development, and political system. Namely, it promotes the notion that the US is defined by liberty, equality, democracy, and a free market system, and it is used to communicate the US’s perceived superiority in domestic and international affairs. In Chapter 1, Taylor refers to American exceptionalism as a “mythology of convenience” (29) that simplifies “the contradiction between the apparent creed of US society and its much more complicated reality” (29).

The American Dream is a concept popularized in the 1930s. In conjunction with its sister myth of American exceptionalism, it promotes the idea that through hard work and perseverance anyone can achieve economic success in the United States. Taylor discusses the American Dream myth in Chapter 1, but it continues to play a central role throughout her discussion as she notes the contradiction between the myth of meritocracy and the economic inequality that permeates American society.

Black Codes refers to “a series of laws, rules, and restrictions imposed only on African Americans [that] criminalized poverty, movement, and even leisure” (109), thereby conflating Blackness with criminality. They were instituted across the South following Emancipation and provided justification for the re-enslavement of Black people through the convict-leasing system.