Many young aspiring professionals, like students at Binghamton University, constantly seek to create novel leadership roles, responsibilities and activities in which we can develop skills and learn to be engaged. In our lives here at BU, we must continue to found new organizations that will benefit and develop racial and social relations among the student community and continue to ideate. As a student body of millennials, we must promote diversity, embrace equality and encourage the notion that no one’s blood is more red than another’s.
Who is to decide if a woman is not fit to earn a living equal to that of her male coworkers? No one. Who is to decide if a person displaced from war is to remain in their war-stricken country, or be granted access to a country that will give them shelter? No one.
Belief in the notion that there is a group of people or a single person who may decide that one fellow human should be treated differently from another is the embodiment of prejudice and discrimination. Defense and hesitation to alter institutions and concepts is a declaration of a fear to welcome change.
Prejudice, fear and narrow-mindedness are all qualities that contribute greatly to a static, fenced and unwelcoming environment. As millennials, the generation that is gaining influence within institutions, we should not support or foster this kind of an environment.
Millennials comprise the most diverse generation in U.S. history. According to The Brookings Institution, minority groups make up 48.5 percent of today’s millennial population while only 25 percent of the baby-boomer population are minorities. That being said, it is common for millennials to embrace our differences among each other. Whether it is sexual orientation, identity, social classes, race or ethnicity, the majority of our generation generally supports each of these variances.
Unfortunately, this is not an entirely unanimous sentiment. Researchers for GenForward, a project conducted at the University of Chicago, surveyed approximately 1,750 millennials ranging from ages 18 to 34. These individuals also incorporated various racial, ethnic and social backgrounds. In doing so, the researchers pushed to contextualize the continuous gap surrounding racial and social ties, including police brutality, gender and marriage equality and unequal pay, to name a few. Some white millennials disagree with the notion that racism and police brutality are top problems in the world today, citing health care as the top concern. This is where the divide lies and where we must step in to amend the pressing social issues that stem from discrimination.
According to the Washington Post, “At a time when 42 percent of Americans say they worry ‘a great deal’ about race relations, according to Gallup, the notion that millennials aren’t united to take on racism is worrisome.” While we are the future, there has been much discrepancy surrounding the united front of millennials.
In the forefront of today’s youth, the majority of individuals believe in equality — equal treatment of everyone — as well as equity — equal opportunities for everyone — and stand by their peers in difficult times. Our minds should not be encumbered with trivial information, but rather we should focus on how we can continue our progression. Despite the advancements we have made, we are still facing housing segregation, economic inequality and health disparities, and these are concerns that we millennials must tackle as we further transition into adulthood.
Chelsea Strong is a junior majoring in economics.