If you’ve spent some time on Facebook in the past two weeks, you’ve probably seen a video floating around titled “Dear Elders, I’m sorry.” This video was released on April 22 by YouTuber Alexis Bloomer. Many, many thoughts went through my head as I watched her criticize her peers. So, as a millennial, I have taken it upon myself to try to evaluate and explain what’s so wrong with this video and why her opinion…sucks.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s a link to her video:
First, I’ll start with the fact that this young lady is taking a video, talking down about her friends, family and strangers. It’s very easy to generalize and discriminate against a group of people, which is exactly what she’s doing. Discrimination is defined as “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.” Congratulations, you’ve now preached to at least 340,400 people about how we should be against an age group, solely based on a few things such as listening to obscene music, using slang terms and assuming that we’re lazy. Personally, my hours spent doing community service and holding leadership positions say otherwise.
Secondly, oh honey, you are so, so wrong. As a millennial, I would like to explain what I have witnessed that shows that you’re extremely biased. We’re not lazy, and this is not just my personal opinion either. Almost all of those that I know personally in my generation attend college and work a part-time or full-time job, including myself. We are the most educated generation to this day, but we have also faced more struggles than the generations that raised us. The percentage of millennials that are unemployed with a college degree is 3.8 percent. Yes, of course, that is much more than the 1.4 percent that were unemployed in previous generations. But if you truly think about it, we have faced the struggles of a time where unemployment rates are at an all-time high. Yet, that doesn’t seem to bring down the fact that 88 percent of those without a college education are employed. Seems like there’s still hope for us “lazy” millennials.
Apparently, we degrade our women and glorify drugs in music, but have you truly listened to some of the music that our parents have listened to? I asked my parents, who are currently in their forties, to name a song that all of their friends knew that played in the 80’s. They said “Don’t Fight the Feelin’” by Too $hort. I looked up this song and found that it immediately starts by saying “Say hoe, yeah you, can I ask you a question? You like to f***?” I’ll not go on to provide any examples from the rest of the dirty song, but you can see what I’m trying to point out here. We had to get our ideas from somewhere, we didn’t one day magically have a top song that included such derogative lyrics. There’s always a start to a certain type of music, from Elvis and his hips to Lil’ Wayne and his lollipop.
Now, of course I’m not speaking for all millennials here. There are some of us that seem as you described, entitled and lazy. But when you speak for all of us, you’re only describing the few of us that are not trying so hard to succeed as much as others. We’re not simply existing, we are becoming the society that previous generations have shaped us to be. Today, we have women in the highest positions of companies. Gay marriage has now been legalized for almost a year. We had our first African American president who held his position for two terms. If you believe slang, rap music, and the adaption to our advancements in technology is the only description you have for our generation then dear elders, I am sorry. I’m sorry that you have not come across some of the most wonderful people in my generation who are working to change the world just as hard as generations before us.
Alexis Bloomer, try again.
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