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I do fear losing the gains that have taken place over the last 50 years. This is one reason to be vigilant. Things are alright now. They could change, and in many cases, not for the better. I understand there are those who there who would like to see Blacks do horrible.
This is a dangerous period, but the danger has an endpoint: You have to wait for us Boomers to die. As I've described before, my generation was born into a segregated society that younger people really don't understand--it was really very, very alien from what you were born into. But it was inculcated into us Boomers, and as a generation we haven't and can't shake it. We will take Jim Crow into our graves.
But the Boomer generation is still running this society, and right now the segregation impulse in my generation is doing a last-gasp death lunge. Yes, it's a dangerous window we're now in. It's why the John L Lewis' and Mike Pences of my generation will be locked in a death battle until we are dead.
But your generation has, as Dave Chappelle has quipped, "the best white people we've ever had."
I'm not pretending there aren't some Dylann Roofs around, but there really is a universe of difference between Boomers and Millennials, and that difference should inform how you handle what remains.
Until you do right by me (the black woman) EVERYTHINGyou think about is gonna crumble.
Frankly, if you're Millennial generation or later, I'd recommend not being adverse to marrying out. My millennial daughter just did (but we can still talk freely about "white people," 'cause she didn't marry that far out).
And after going with here through her teen aged years and a decade of young womanhood, I can't blame her.
I've suggested in this thread that the black Millennial generation might be the last "African-American" generation, and I still think that's the likely case. There will still be a culture of some sort considered "black," but it won't be the culture that I grew up with...it isn't even now.
Frankly, if you're Millennial generation or later, I'd recommend not being adverse to marrying out. My millennial daughter just did (but we can still talk freely about "white people," 'cause she didn't marry that far out).
And after going with here through her teen aged years and a decade of young womanhood, I can't blame her.
I've suggested in this thread that the black Millennial generation might be the last "African-American" generation, and I still think that's the likely case. There will still be a culture of some sort considered "black," but it won't be the culture that I grew up with...it isn't even now.
I think that it is truly sad that so many of us (black people) believe that dating/mating/marrying out is some type of solution to "our" issues. While I personally have no issues with interracial relationships I also understand that it does not address issues for the community as a whole.
I might also add that while the statistics for black women in interracial marriages are great for black women, the statistics for black men in interracial marriages or who have children with a non-black woman are rather dismal. The problems that exist do not resolve themselves but getting a non-black partner.
But back to the reason for my previous post.....
The issues and concerns of black women are dismissed and ignored by the black community. Until this changes, the black community will continue to decline.
I think that it is truly sad that so many of us (black people) believe that dating/mating/marrying out is some type of solution to "our" issues. While I personally have no issues with interracial relationships I also understand that it does not address issues for the community as a whole.
Nor is it expected to. It's an individual response.
Quote:
I might also add that while the statistics for black women in interracial marriages are great for black women, the statistics for black men in interracial marriages or who have children with a non-black woman are rather dismal. The problems that exist do not resolve themselves but getting a non-black partner.
But back to the reason for my previous post.....
The issues and concerns of black women are dismissed and ignored by the black community. Until this changes, the black community will continue to decline.
Third wave feminism killed that. What you want can't exist in the same universe as third wave feminism. You can't raise a generation of young black boys telling them "sisters are doing it for themselves" and expect them to care about the issues and concerns of black women. Or any women, really.
Third wave feminism killed that. What you want can't exist in the same universe as third wave feminism. You can't raise a generation of young black boys telling them "sisters are doing it for themselves" and expect them to care about the issues and concerns of black women. Or any women, really.
And yet these same young black men want women (specifically black women) to care about their issues and concerns. The next time (and there will be a next time) that a young black man is killed by the police, black men will FULLY expect black women to march in the streets and confront the (white) man on their behalf. When black women are killed the sounds of victim blaming by black men is deafening.
And please do not blame the current lack of black male compassion on "feminism". This has been occurring well before the feminist movement.
"There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again." - Sojourner Truth 1867
And yet these same young black men want women (specifically black women) to care about their issues and concerns. The next time (and there will be a next time) that a young black man is killed by the police, black men will FULLY expect black women to march in the streets and confront the (white) man on their behalf. When black women are killed the sounds of victim blaming by black men is deafening.
And please do not blame the current lack of black male compassion on "feminism". This has been occurring well before the feminist movement.
"There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again." - Sojourner Truth 1867
That's what you keep saying. But if that's what any young black woman really believes about black men, then clearly her logical personal decision should be either to look elsewhere or be content to be alone.
There's no point to being alone and kvetching about it.
This is a dangerous period, but the danger has an endpoint: You have to wait for us Boomers to die. As I've described before, my generation was born into a segregated society that younger people really don't understand--it was really very, very alien from what you were born into. But it was inculcated into us Boomers, and as a generation we haven't and can't shake it. We will take Jim Crow into our graves.
But the Boomer generation is still running this society, and right now the segregation impulse in my generation is doing a last-gasp death lunge. Yes, it's a dangerous window we're now in. It's why the John L Lewis' and Mike Pences of my generation will be locked in a death battle until we are dead.
But your generation has, as Dave Chappelle has quipped, "the best white people we've ever had."
I'm not pretending there aren't some Dylann Roofs around, but there really is a universe of difference between Boomers and Millennials, and that difference should inform how you handle what remains.
It leaves me with another though. There have been no Generation-Xers in the Presidential office. Generation X was the first generation born and outside of the Jim Crow era. This is the thing about the Baby Boomers. The Baby Boomers should at least let the younger generation take the lead.
The society I was born in was very different from what my father grew up in. He's a baby boomer. He was born during the mid 1950s. In his city, Blacks couldn't buy homes in certain areas of the city. He went to nearly all-Black schools. There were maybe one or two White students who went to the schools he went to. My father was born during Jim Crow but graduated from high school several years after its ending.
I've dealt with racism and bigots from my own generation. However, as Dave Chappelle said, this is pretty much the best I've seen. I'm hoping that things move forward with the millennials. What does sad is that the hate and Jim Crow mindset that was commonplace in the 50s has been passed down. There are those who are still trying to do a last gasp through the next generation.
I agree we're not talking about the same thing today. In fact, I'd argue that the Millennial generation needs to think in a completely different fashion about racial relations.
When I was a kid (late 50s, early 60s), when we traveled across country, my father generally avoided stopping. If we had to stop for gas or to buy food, he got out first and checked to see if we'd be allowed. If we were allowed, he'd come back to the car and tell us. Often, he just came back to the car and drove away. The usual tactic was to stop in the black part of town and stock up on food so we didn't risk needing to stop where there were too many whites around.
My wife's experience was more extreme because she had three sisters--so they were travelling with a father, and five women. They stocked up on food, carried jars to pee in, and simply didn't stop at all.
When I went into the Air Force, my mother warned me it total seriousness always to travel across country with my uniform hanging in the back so if I got stopped by police, they'd know someone might come looking for me.
That's why there was even a special travel guide called The Green Book that listed places across the country safe for black travelers to stop.
Now, that mode of thought is embedded in my generation--but it's something Millennials have never experienced. Nor would we older blacks even want you to...that's what we were working for you never to experience.
But I'm thinking now: You should not act as though you did. Is there racism today, yes, but I guarantee you it's not what my parents went through, and Millennials and Post-Millennials should realize 99% of that struggle has already been fought.
The first black student at my university had to listen to lectures sitting in the hall. I got to sit in the classroom, but I was nearly always still "first" or "only."
My generation didn't go through what my parents went through, and our parents never wanted us to. You folk aren't dealing with that--and we never wanted you to.
You might be confusing me with a millennial. My father was born in the twenties. My mother in the forties. You do bring up some really good points though.
Someone posted on here about a street mentality, in the suburbs. Seems to have been deleted by the author; for whatever reason I can't find it.
There's seems to be some confusion about mentality, and wanting to be rachet, and actually being the streets, wherever those streets may be. Used to be that the "streets" was a pejorative for the inner city. That is no longer the case. With a lot of Blacks getting priced out of the inner city, and the neighborhoods that were created out of that experience moving to suburbia; primarily inner ring but in some cases even further out, one has to look at things differently. I think that some honestly believe that the same drug activity does not exist out in the suburbs, and that none of the suburbs experience violent activity. This notion should have went away a long time ago, with how things are out in Compton. Millennials that weren't around then should have learned it in their own time with Ferguson. I honestly do not know why that stereotypical assumption about suburbia continues to persist.
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