***ANTI-MILLENNIAL BIGOTRY***
I’m not a confrontational person by any stretch of the
imagination. I don’t talk about politics on a frequent basis and I dread
getting in debates with people. However, as someone who was born in 1985, I
feel like if I don’t write this blog entry, it’ll be a missed opportunity to
put myself out there. This is a sensitive topic for me, so bear with me for a
minute. I’m talking of course about ageism, particularly against people born in
the 80’s and 90’s a.k.a. Millennials.
Being a Generation Y member should never be associated with
laziness or selfishness. Those are stereotypes based on limited information.
Some Millennials fit the stereotypes, some don’t, just like with any other
group of people. It’s like saying all black people love fried chicken or all
gay people think about sex 24/7. Again, those are stereotypes and they don’t
apply to everyone. Yet ageism against young adults seems to slip through the
cracks and is widely accepted by both liberals and conservatives of older
generations. They see some of us texting on our phones and think the entire
population is suddenly doomed.
No generation is without their own set of stereotypes. For
example, I could easily label Generation X members as whiny drug addicts or
Prozac chugging slackers, but I’m not going to say any of those things, because
I’m not an asshole. I could also say Baby Boomers and Great Generation members
are a bunch of boring storytellers who can’t shut up about walking 100 miles in
the snow, but again, that would make me an asshole and that’s not who I am. So
why would it be okay to say that every millennial on this planet is a
self-important text-messaging queen? Every last one of them? Not just some? Not
just a few? All of them?
As a millennial myself, I do admit to fitting in with at
least SOME of the stereotypes against us, but not because my birth year was
magically selected to be 1985. I’m open about the fact that I’m unemployed and
live with my parents.
I’m not unemployed because I’m lazy and therefore don’t want
a job. I’m unemployed because after sending my resume to a bunch of different
work sites and doing countless interviews, the bosses still said no. It happens
a lot, especially since millennials hit their pique during the Bush-era
recession. Older people love to blame laziness, but that’s simply not true.
Truth is, you can dress in your nicest clothes, you can work your hardest, you
can give the most agreeable answers, and give 100% of yourself during an
interview, but in the end, you, the Generation Y member, are not the one who
makes the decisions in the workplace. Otherwise, unemployment wouldn’t be a
major stereotype for my generation. If we could work, we would. We know full
well that money isn’t everything, but it is something.
I don’t live with my parents because of financial worries. I
live with them for two main reasons. One, I love being in their company. Two,
we have a symbiotic relationship where we help each other. As Baby Boomers, my
mom and step-dad can’t do as much physical labor as they could in their younger
years. My mother has hip and knee problems that she can only find relief from
on a temporary basis. My step-dad Dale has been battling a kidney stone since
the last month. While I don’t enjoy heavy lifting or any other kind of
strenuous labor, I do it because I love my parents and I don’t want them to get
hurt. If you can’t take care of each other, who can you take care of? It’s
natural to want to surround yourself with people who make you feel good and
that’s something that spans all generations.
While I’ll always condemn people who unfairly criticize
young adults for laziness and entitlement, there is one thing I will share
common ground with them on: smart phones. I agree with the idea that being in
real world company should trump text messaging or playing videogames on a smart
phone. It’s a basic form of respect. Corey Taylor from Slipknot once smacked a
phone out of someone’s hands during a performance because that audience member
was texting instead of watching the show. I grinned from ear to ear at Mr.
Taylor’s display.
I myself don’t need a smart phone for anything that my
desktop computer can do better. I have a generic cell phone that I only use for
emergencies, whether it’s bumming a ride or needing to know where a family
member is. And before you criticize me for not having my own car and therefore
being a lazy millennial, I should let you know that crashing on the highway and
spreading one’s guts all over the tarmac isn’t a pleasant experience for any
age group.
Millennials are just like any other group of people in this
world. Some are good, some are evil. Some are smart, some are dumb. Some are
happy, some are sad. There will always be standouts who defy stereotypes no
matter what group of people you’re talking about. George Carlin, a member of
the Great Generation, is definitely not a droning storyteller; he’s one of the
funniest comedians of all time. The main cast of the new Ghostbusters movie are
not a bunch of bikini-wearing sex machines; they’re normal women who do
extraordinary things in their movie. Q-Tip, a born-again Muslim rapper, is not
secretly plotting to blow up buildings with a suicide vest; he’s putting out
kick-ass music and helping younger rappers get noticed.
While ageism should be recognized as being like any other
form of bigotry, it somehow became normal along the way. Bill Maher, a
liberal-libertarian pundit, once called ageism “The last acceptable prejudice”
and then turned around and referred to Millennials as “Generation Ass” because
he saw a picture on Twitter of a woman with a giant posterior. Ageism has
become one of those things that spans many belief systems and cultures while no
real progress is being made against it. There are even members of Generation Y
who criticize their own age group.
I don’t know how young people ageism became acceptable, but
I can assure you that it has nothing to do with all of this sweet technology
and “free shit” we have. No generation wants to pass the torch to the next. I
even had a hard time passing the torch to Generation Z because of all the
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez songs that were being published. Reina, my
Generation Z niece, doesn’t fit those stereotypes because she’d rather listen
to bands like Breaking Benjamin and 3 Doors Down. That’s right, folks. I used
to be just another ignorant ageist myself. And then I posted a 2009 essay where
I joked about ruling over teenagers with an iron fist if I ever became an
English teacher. That didn’t go over too well with the Deviant Art community,
because surprise, surprise, ageism is just as bad as any other form of
prejudice. As we all know, prejudice isn’t just insulting, but it can hurt us
on an even deeper level whether it’s with employment, police treatment, or
social status.
I’m going to ask something that’s been asked many times
before, but nobody gave a definitive answer to. Can’t we all just get along?
***JOKE OF THE DAY***
Q: What do you call it when a McDonald’s employee goes
berserk?
A: Minimum rage.
