(Picture of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama)
Have you ever been out an notice someone older look at someone younger with disdain? Before even trying to understand were this particular individual is coming from, based on the exterior they make an assumption, they make the assumption and then without any evidence to substantiate their claim they keep their biased based opinions. "You misjudge us because you do not know us"(W.E. DuBois, The Talented Tenth)
This preconceived notions of what is Young Black America has to change. The discord or generational gap between us(by us I men younger blacks and older blacks) needs to be reduced or done anyway with. At the core of it I think it is lack of understanding what each generation stood for and work for.
The older generation Baby Boomers and younger had to fight against a system that oppressed them, chastised them, segregation to integration and so much more. We on the other hand have to deal with all of that and they fact that they world is becoming an increasingly smaller and more competitive place.
A subject that really stands out is how quick older people are to point out the fact that “we marched, we protested, they had hoses. And so on”, but my question was were you really there? Not there in spirit but, were you physically there? Were you attacked? So why do you make it seem like you were on the front line of the civil rights movement.
My generation has more potential than any previous generation I think based off of the resources that we have available. I do not think we use it wisely though. I think we have become complacent in were we stand. My generation was born into the situation we are currently in, we are not the creators of that, I think people lose sight of that as well.
We have forgotten that we did arrive here in America on the Mayflower Compact nor were we included as people on the signing of the Magna Carta. We have become blinded and simple minded due to all the distractions in the media and the accessibility of misinformation through our phones.
We are no were near as organized as we should be or were and I think some of that blame goes towards integration of the races. I’m not saying we should be segregated again, but we lost sight of what “The Dream” meant and stands for. When we got our civil rights we as blacks thought it meant that we truly were free in a country that less than 100 years before signing that stated that we property first and slaves second. In a system that stated by law you are 3/5 of a human being. They believed it and went crazy. They stopped raising their kids they same, thought we were free to do what we wanted.
Let me know what you think
a serious mistake was thinking that we were free from responsibility for our fate in America...gjg
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