The Lie Millenials Ate

When I finished reading The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin I felt I finally put two and two together. The book is honest, raw, and speaks about a lot of issues, and touches upon many topics, and as with any other good book, it leaves you with different feelings.

I felt that the working class just ate the same lie that the enslaved people ate before.

A white lie; a well-intentioned untruth.

The slaves have been told by the Christian church that they are less human because they do not believe in God. So those who wanted to make a change started to read the Bible, master it, and wait to be approved.

Well, in the end, they needed some support, protests, and too much blood to be taken as humans.

It was not knowing the Bible that made a change.

So, I was thinking, why do I feel the connections with the enslaved?

Generational Disillusionment

I looked inside, maybe because we — the Millenials — were told in school, by media, and society at large that we could not be successful if we didn’t go to college.

You cannot be a leader without a college degree. Look, all the successful people around you have a diploma. Make a change, go to college.

So, most of the working-class kids went to college. We believed that spending five years at the university while working a meaningless and minimum-wage job would save us.

The college is our Bible.

Some of our parents sacrifice their money and time to support us. To support a better future. Did we go to college? Yes. Did we get our prize? Nope.

Class Inequality and The Myth of Meritocracy

Because the key to success is not college, it is not knowledge, expertise, or being well-prepared. It is less nuanced:

The key to financial success is borning into a wealthy family, connections, and telling lies after lies.

Some of us from the working class became famous, successful, or a millionaire but we need more than that. We need systematic changes, not individual success.

What we need is the same support and protests.

Please, don’t let anyone die or suffer this time.

It was never a race war, it was a class war all along.

I’d like to add some clarity about my comparison. The suffering and oppression of enslaved people were of a different magnitude, rooted in racial genocide and forced labor.

The suffering that black people had to go through is nothing to be compared to. I intend to talk about the lies both sides were told.

The suffering is not the same both stem from systems of oppression that exploit people’s labor and restrict opportunities.

I want to be clear that I do not try to minimize the specific atrocities faced by enslaved people but highlight shared experiences of systemic inequality.

Thank you for reading me!

The Witty Witch