Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH.
If you haven’t been hiding under a rock for the last 72 hours, you would’ve have heard about the Lifetime documentary that everyone was talking about; yes, the one entitled Surviving R. Kelly. Having watched the first two nights on television when they premiered, I felt a wide range of emotions; I felt anger, sadness, empathy, and straight up powerfulness and bravery that these women represent in a movement like the one we are actively bringing awareness to. Upon the various Facebook posts, one person shared a post regarding the question of “Why are people so shocked that R. Kelly got away with his shit for this long? Because millennials were too young to understand what was going on at the time. The youngest we could’ve been was 10 years old, and we were not the ones who were buying and selling these bootleg sex tapes on the street. We are talking about it now because we do not tolerate the shit that older generations weren’t aware of when they were our age. We’re a different type of breed.”
I slowly looked up at our phone and thought, “hell yeah, we most certainly are.”
To clear up any confusion on what a “millennial” is, the millennial generation is different than the millennium. The millennial generation is considered to be the group of people who were born from 1981 to 1996; anything younger than that is considered Generation Z. The millennium is when the year 2000 hit… simple as that. People really do have misconceptions about the millennial generation; people think we were all raised on strictly technology, that we don’t know what good music was, that we are all just whiny young adults with issues because we were “babied” throughout our lives. Millennials, in simpler terms, are being confused with Generation Z babies.
Millennials, they are a force to be wrecked with.
You see, many of us are in our adulthood, and if not, just starting out adulthood. Most of us either are settled down with kids or had just graduated college. We are the generation that still appreciates a good, physical book. Rarely are any of us listening to Top 40 mainstream music. And most of us, if not all, are very understanding that the life that we grew up around and the things that were happening when we were kids, will not be tolerated anymore.
We are not just eliminating the N-word out of our vocabulary, but all offensive words that degrade other people’s cultures, beliefs, sexual orientation and identity, and lifestyles. We are not supporting anyone who is all for hurting others for power, supporting anyone whose beliefs are inhumane, and allowing people to spread ignorance in our society thinking saying or doing things towards different types of people is alright. We are the generation that is trying to actively stop the nonsense of those who were able to get away with things for years on end. In this situation, we are finally calling out R. Kelly and boyscotting his music due to his abusive behavior towards women, and calling out his fetish for young, teenage girls. No more “Ignition”, no more “Step in the Name of Love”. We will not support anyone who intentionally hurts and silences other people, especially women.
Although we have a lot to learn about this world and where we belong in it, I personally feel like we are a strong handful of people in which I hope one day can make this country an even more progressive country than it’s becoming. Yeah, we still have people with traditional, sexist, racist, and misogynist views, but I know for a fact that we will once outweigh those people who still try to keep society’s norms and traditions the same. We, as a generation, have come so far already.
We’ve made so many amazing voices heard and we’ve made such progress in making the world as united as we can get it. We, in my opinion, are a generation of dreamers, believers, and fighters; we’re going to be just fine.
So, beware of us millennials. We’re here to stay and to fight for what’s right in this world.
-Liz. (:
Letters From Liz. 