My biggest pet peeve about the way that older people talk about my generation is the overlooking of how compassionate of a group we are. I believe we are the most compassionate group of human beings yet. Older generations are always saying we are over-sensitive. Perhaps that is true, but to me, this is what sets us apart.
I am one that could be called sensitive. I am pursuing comedy, but whenever I hear jokes that are at the expense of a man’s wife, or that use racially insensitive slurs, I do not laugh.
People miss that the reason we are so sensitive to these things is because the people who are hurt by them are sensitive to them as well. Whether or not they share that information liberally. They, however, can not speak up about how hurtful casual slurs are. Why? Because then they become the crazy minority. They’re categorized by every older, less informed person in the room about how they just can not take a joke, and then the cycle of their voices not being listened to continues.
As a white woman, I experience this problem to a much lower degree than a racial minority, and I, like many others in my generation, speak up, because we can not allow others to be labelled in this way, and we can not be indifferent when someone is being hurt.
I am proud to be a part of a generation like this
We are the type of people who do not make fun of others unless we know they are as in on the joke as we are. And while we are the “me” generation… To me, we earn this title because we relate so heavily to other people’s struggles instead of alienating those who speak up about them.
We are the “me” generation because we see ourselves in others. When we see someone fall, we laugh. Not because it is funny that they are injured, but because we understand what that feels like and identify with their pain. When older generations call us selfish, lazy, or spoiled. Well, I think of our candor in facing ourselves and each other. Because we are so exposed to each other’s daily lives with social media, we are forced to face ourselves honestly. To face us and others with no filters, in contrast with what we would like the world to see.
Personally, I think this makes us all the more kind. It makes us better, and more compassionate people. Something, we all need and most of all, something our generation should be proud of.
Photo by Roberto Nickson (@g) on Unsplash
