A popular complaint about millenials (and liberals) from people who, well, are not millenials or liberals, is that they "get too offended." We hear it all the time--in grocery stores, on the internet, at our grandparents' houses. A current internet trend is a meme about traumatic disasters in the US throughout the years, ending with the year 2016 being paired with "Everyone is so offended." Complaints about how people take to the internet to raise awareness with hashtags are issued left and right. "You can't change the world with a hashtag." To those who feel like "being offended" is the result of a simply whiny generation: you are not looking below the surface of these actions.
Systematic oppression and discrimination don't thrive without being fed. Small acts of racism, minor acts of sexual assault, white lies, and turning the other cheek feed into a world where not all humans are treated equally. Derogatory marks towards groups of people are acceptable because they are uttered in jest, so it's "ok." However, nobody seems to have a definite answer as to where to draw the line. Shades of grey become so vast that people are being legally disenfranchised in extraordinary ways, mistreated, and as a result forced to jump through hoops for things that are a birthright to those who are not "different." People don't just not have equal rights, and the world wasn't created in a manner that certain groups were just naturally supposed to be disenfranchised. People made it that way, and it didn't happen all at once. Small acts create larger and larger acceptance and more serious actions beyond a racist joke or a catcall, just as small white lies become a huge web. Those who speak up and speak out are the farthest thing from "too sensitive". The best thing to do is start making some noise and calling attention to issues. Just because so you refuse to talk about it does not mean it is not happening. Stop pushing it under the rug.
Next time you are online scrolling past what you may feel is a bunch of college students whining and being offended, take a moment to truly think about their intentions. While speaking out using the internet may not seem to be very effective, the amount of people that can be reached and educated on matters that they would otherwise not be aware of or properly informed of is astonishing. We may have made some monumentally progressive advancements in this nation, but we still have a lot to work on in several areas. The mistreatment and injustice numerous groups of people face every day is not new, we now have the means to broadcast the events to the world instantly. The #BlackLivesMatter movement quickly brought people together nationwide to make a change to a nationwide and universal issue. All it takes is one person to recruit people with a common goal to start a revolution, and there is no better place than the internet in this day and age to do just that.
We are not whining. We are working towards putting an end to things that have long been issues in our nation. We are calling things out, because not enough people have done it in the past and therefore we have gotten to this point. We should be outraged at small acts of sexism, sexual harassment, racism, discrimination, and inequality. We are trying to unite each other to make the world a better place for everyone, emphasis on the every. No matter how small a person may feel their influence is or how empty their bank account may be, spreading the word and raising awareness is free. There are many ways to contribute to a cause you support. If you have the means, you can donate. If you don't have the means to donate, you can volunteer. If you don't have the time to volunteer, you can educate. No one big thing is going to make the world a better place. Small acts of kindness and effort by large numbers of people slowly but surely make a difference--do not sleep on that.
"It is the small things which count; it is the inconsequential leak which empties the biggest reservoir." -Charles Comiskey
