Millennials. What are they really? According to the dictionary, a millennial is a person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000; a Generation Y-er. Ultimately, we are the youngest generation as of today and technically, the ones who will be held responsible for our country’s condition when we are old enough to make a change (not to say we can’t do it right now: GO OUT AND VOTE IN THIS YEAR'S ELECTION EVERYBODY!). But according to the baby boomer generation or those who are between the ages of 52 and 70 years old as of 2016, us millennials are lazy, entitled, spoiled, technology-obsessed, and most of all, uninformed. When speaking of millennials, Ben Shapiro of Breitbart News said, “Well, there may be a few things we [millennials] can’t solve. Like simple reading comprehension problems, for example. And how to stop living in mom’s basement… Truth be told, millennials are the least useful generation in America. By a long shot”.

Millennials are not surprised by these judgments anymore. We’ve had these insults shoved down our throats for years, but we’ve never accepted them as the truth. In fact, it’s been proven wrong many times. For example, many baby boomers enjoy calling millennials lazy when in fact a majority of millennials work at least part-time or full-time jobs and not even for their own spending money. They work to pay for their insane college tuitions. As of 2016, the average tuition for an in-state college with room & board is about $20,000. Julie Mack, a journalist from MLive and a baby boomer herself, wrote, “I entered Jackson Community College in fall 1977, where my tuition was $15 a credit hour, about $58 in today's dollars. When I transferred to Michigan State University in 1979, my tuition for the year was about $1,500, or about $4,900 adjusted for inflation”. That’s a $15,000 difference. Millennials are consistently trying to pull out facts like these to defend themselves, but the unfair judgments never seem to end.

As of late, there have been many horrible things happening around the world that all of us must witness on the news on loop. Police brutality, homophobia, transphobia, gun violence, terrorism, etc. I stated earlier that many baby boomers like to refer to millennials as “misinformed” and I also mentioned Ben Shapiro’s comments about us being “useless”. Well, the article I quoted of Ben Shapiro’s was titled “7 Reasons Millennials Are The Worst Generation” and what was his second reason? “They Don’t Know Anything About Politics”. With all of the political madness and election talk swarming the internet, I thought I might put my generation to the test. How much do they really know about what’s going on in today’s society? I decided to ask some of them about one of the world’s most talked about issues on the news, white privilege.

Many older, white people (to be specific) have many things misconstrued about white privilege. Some believe the term “white privilege” disregards white people who are lower class and struggled their whole lives, but those who say this do not know the true meaning of white privilege. Altogether, these issues are about racism and inequality. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have A Dream speech, which was given in 1963, he speaks about Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves, and he says, “One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination,” To think 53 years later, we are still fighting the same fight. That’s 153 years of racism and discrimination. There is a reason white privilege needs to be addressed.

Instead of asking white people about these issues that pertain to them, I decided to do the opposite. I wanted to know what black people had to say about this popular movement. How aware are they and how does it make them feel? I was unsure of the kinds of answers I would hear (but don't worry, I talked to white people as well, just about a different political issue. More info on that at the end of this article.) I posed the question, “In your own words, what is white privilege and do you believe it truly exists in today’s society?”. And here’s what happened. Hopefully, this will prove the older generation wrong:

Thoughts On White Privilege

“To me, white privilege is the fact that 9/10 times, white people are not assumed to do anything wrong ever, especially if there is any small chance that a POC could be a suspect. It's the reason why many black people feel unsafe because they think they'll be racially profiled and be a target instead of a citizen. It's also the fact that many white people and black people can commit the same crime but the black person would be punished and the white person most likely wouldn't. I do believe it exists in today's society, very much so.”

• Cami, 18 years old

“I believe white privilege does still exist in today's society and I believe that it is quite literally more privilege for whites. I think a white person is more likely to get a job than any other ethnicities because of the stereotypes that other ethnicities hold per se.”

• Zaria, 20 years old

“White privilege is the advantage in society that whites, as the dominant race in our society, developed over time due to the ideologies of superiority and inferiority of certain races over others. It is of no fault of specific individuals today, but rather the repercussions of a long history of racial tensions and hierarchies based on skin tone— i.e. slavery, Jim Crow laws, mistreatment of Native Americans, etc. They've always had the money, thus they had the power to make the rules. Without a doubt, it exists in our country today in that there is still an unspoken superiority and advantages you'll automatically receive or experience in life if you're white. For example, Whites are generally assumed to be articulate, intelligent people while it is found surprising when a black person who uses standard American English doesn't "speak ghetto" or "ebonics." A black and white male may commit the exact same crime, and a white man will get off with a slap on the wrist while the black man will more likely face criminal charges. If whites "just do exactly what an officer asks," they will most likely survive to tell the tale of how they were pulled over by the police while a black man is often times already deemed guilty rather than innocent until proven otherwise”

• Reina, 21 years old

“White privilege, to me, is something that is access to unearned benefits based off the "thought" of white people representing superiority. I know white privilege exists because white people have not experienced half of the things people of color (African American, Latino, Native American, etc.) have had to go through. Some white people try to deny that white privilege is a thing, but you see people like Tomi Lahren, who is 24 years old, a white woman, who has her own TV show dedicated to expressing her conservative views and values. Every time I see a segment of her show, she uses it to downgrade things like BLM and Jesse Williams after his speech on the BET Awards. She has the privilege to go on her show and state her opinions like they are facts. If you don't believe white privilege exists, look her up. She is the poster child for white privilege.”

• Summer, 19 years old

“White privilege is alive and well. There’s no doubt about it. To me, when it comes down to white privilege, it's the fact that white people don't walk around with the weight of their ENTIRE race on their shoulders. White privilege is being able to walk down the street and not have people clutching their purse or locking their doors. White privilege is getting the benefit of a doubt . It's the little things that people might not notice...but it's there.”

• Chandler, 19 years old

“To me, white privilege is when white people are, as a whole, treated better, such as getting jobs that they'll overlook other races for and it's all too real. White people are basically seen and treated as "the favorite child" in our society.”

• Justin, 19 years old

When reading through and reviewing these comments, I was overwhelmed with the intellectual and meaningful thoughts that came out of my peers. These are the young adults who are labeled as lazy. Labeled as entitled. Labeled as spoiled. Labeled as MISINFORMED. We know nothing about politics, right? Wrong. We are the ones going to peaceful protests, rallies, and voting booths. We are the ones fighting to change the world so our children and our children’s children won’t have to go through another 153 years of this.

If you liked this article, there was the first part to this little series I wrote called "I Asked Millennials About Black Lives Matter", where I talk to white people about the movement. To check that out (which I suggest you do), click here. Until then, do not allow our generation to fall into our negative labels. Stand up and make a change.