Millennials & Diversity

Alert: the current issue of Pacific Standard includes a thoughtful piece about millennials and diversity from beloved journalist Michael Dang (!). In “This Millennial Story is Different” Mike points out that when we’re talking about a generation that is, according to a Pew Research Report, “the most ethnically and racially diverse cohort of youth in the nation’s history,” it’s ridiculous to keep on coming back to the same old broad-sweeping narrative:

So, how do you reconcile the idea of the lazy, entitled Millennial with the Asian-American Millennial who was raised with culturally-specific expectations to work hard and financially support her parents? Without any discussion about race, this kind of reconciliation is impossible and has the effect of turning a large segment of a generation invisible. And invisible is precisely what we often feel. Wesley Yang, writing about the Asian-American experience in New York magazine in 2011, summed it up: “Here is what I sometimes suspect my face signifies to other Americans: an invisible person, barely distinguishable from a mass of faces that resemble it. A conspicuous person standing apart from the crowd and yet devoid of any individuality.”

Read it! Mike only compares himself to Hannah Horvath one time, which I think shows particular restraint.

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