One of the most interesting articles I read last weekend was “When we talk about Millennials, We’re Usually Talking about White People” by Chris Martin. In it he gives a very timely warning about making blanket statements about young adults of the millennial generation while really talking about one part of the group.
Martin does a very good job of pointing out there are millennials (especially those of other ethnicities) that don’t fit our view of what they are like.
You write something like, “Millennials are moochers who live with their parents,” because you hear stories about your college friends living at home, playing video games all day, and not getting a “real job.” But you don’t think about the 25-year-old African American brothers in Harlem working three jobs to care for their aging parents, who actually depend on them rather than the other way around.
As an illustration of the danger here he refers to an article written in 2013 by a prominent Protestant blogger bemoaning the fact that millennials no longer come to Church…however what she meant was white, middle-class millennials weren’t coming to Church.
Chris Martin ends with some advice on how to clarify we are referring to a subset (very small part) of the millennial generation
For me personally this article was a challenge to look past my own subset of people, and understand that they don’t represent everyone. And maybe, just maybe, things aren’t as dark as they seem for the millennials.