I don't know if I've ever posted this here

[gollygee]

But it's important. There's a myth, strongly believed here at DU, that Millenials are less racist than the generations that came before them. That belief is based on the idea that being "color blind" solves racism, which of course it doesn't. The last generation to make a difference wrt racism was the Baby Boomer generation, which actively worked against it. This should not be surprising, but it is beyond surprising and not believed, despite the following article actually showing the questions asked and the answers given in the study which showed it to be true.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/07/white-millennials-are-just-about-as-racist-as-their-parents/

I find I have to post this in response to this myth pretty often.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I don't think so - my question

Does this then mean they are by and large - or a majority - are really just out for themselves?

Millennials are just about as racist as their parents


By Scott Clement April 7, 2015  Follow @sfcpoll

Racial slurs that have cropped up chants, e-mails and white boards on America's college campuses have some people worried about whether the nation's diverse and fawned-over millennial generation is not as racially tolerant as might be expected. The Christian Science Monitor went so far as to ask, "Are millennials racist?"

Surely not all millennials are racist, but data can address a key related question: Are white millennials less racially prejudiced than past generations?

We took a look at five measures of racial prejudice from the General Social Survey conducted by NORC's 2010, 2012 and 2014 waves. Among many other questions, the survey asked respondents to rate whites and blacks on a scale from being "hardworking" to "lazy." Using this data, we can categorize respondents into whether they rated whites or blacks as being lazier, more hardworking or the same.

When it comes to explicit prejudice against blacks, non-Hispanic white millennials are not much different than whites belonging to Generation X (born 1965-1980) or Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964). White millennials (using a definition of being born after 1980) express the least prejudice on 4 out of 5 measures in the survey, but only by a matter of 1 to 3 percentage points, not a meaningful difference. On work ethic, 31 percent of millennials rate blacks as lazier than whites, compared to 32 percent of Generation X whites and 35 percent of Baby Boomers. (Question wording and methodology at the end).

[gollygee]

3. Hmm I don't think the study answers that one way or the other

Just that they haven't learned to be less racist, which makes sense as our country has given up on anti-racist work since about the 1970s.

Whether that is related to self-absorption or not, I don't know. I've always felt like it's a reflection upon those of us who are white and from earlier generations. We should have kept up the anti-racist work that came before us, and we didn't. We abandoned it for "color blindness." We can't be surprised if young white people are at the same place as our generation if we haven't worked to make things better.

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. I wonder if that "abandon(ment) to color-blindness is a result of the ...

widely, and commonly, misinterpreted Dr. King quote?

[gollygee]

8. That's at least the justification people give. N/t

[leftofcool]

2. I have found that millennials are more racist.

Seems to be the case with the ones I have met. It all goes back to being privileged.

[gollygee]

4. I don't feel like I'm in any place to judge that personally

The study shows that they are at about the same place, but very slightly less racist. I have no personally feeling about it though since I'm not a victim of racism and haven't experienced it from that side. It's also possible they could have about the same internal feelings of racism, but be more open in speaking about it. This study was really just about their internal feelings - not about their impact on people of color due to racism, or how open they were in expressing their feelings.

[leftofcool]

5. This has just been our experience.

[gollygee]

6. Totally believe you. n/t