All tagged black millennials

The American Dream already eluded millennials of color. Then came coronavirus. [The Washington Post]

The American Dream already eluded millennials of color. Then came coronavirus. [The Washington Post]

reniqua allen
Commentary, Reporting

I also worry for the well-being of my millennial peers: We pursued higher education as its costs ballooned, and entered the workforce just when the recession hit. What used to be called a “career” has become a string of gigs. When our parents were our age, they owned over 20 percent of the nation’s wealth; today, we have just 3 percent. Now, just as many are starting families, the coronavirus threatens an economic downturn on a scale that this country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression.

But I’m especially worried about a particular slice of my generational cohort: young people of color, who are far more vulnerable than their white peers to crises like the coronavirus.

ON BLACK MILLENNIALS IN SEARCH OF THE NEW SOUTH [LitHub]

ON BLACK MILLENNIALS IN SEARCH OF THE NEW SOUTH [LitHub]

reniqua allen
Book

Over the last few years I’ve been trying to find the “New South” that young Black millennials like me are moving to. That Black Mecca of upwardly mobile Black folk that is so prominent in the Black imagination. But I can’t. I look for it every time I visit the South. Instead of a feeling of freedom and comfort, all I feel is the weight of a past that doesn’t feel so distant. I want to love places like Charlotte, Charleston, Memphis, and of course Atlanta, the place the SNL writer Michael Che called the “Blackest” city in America, but it’s been hard. It’s been even harder after Trump became our president and I see Klan and Nazi rallies and White power signs peppering the region.

The American Dream Isn't For Black Millennials [The New York Times]

The American Dream Isn't For Black Millennials [The New York Times]

reniqua allen
Book

The American dream, the idea that anyone can succeed through hard work, is one of the most enduring myths in this country. And one of its most prominent falsehoods. As I entered my 30s, still navigating what achieving the dream would mean, I wondered what other black millennials were feeling. I wanted to figure out what my generation of black Americans thought about the promise of the American dream and how we can attain it.