[Coda]

Generation labels are just made-up anyway. There's no hard boundaries between them. I am, technically, a millennial, since I was born in 1982, but culturally I'm a lot more related to Generation X.

The only living labeled generation that has ANY statistically-significant characteristics are the Baby Boomers. Outside of the Boomers, everyone else falls within the bell curve of American average on basically any meaningful measurement.

[Kory]

I agree.

I mostly resonate with the older Millennials, even if I am considered Gen Z,
The thing is, I was raised by older parents, so a lot of the stuff I liked and watched was mostly from the early 80's and sometimes even into the 70's.

Also, having a hippie father, I listened to a lot of children's folk music as a kid.

I don't feel like I fit into the mold of a "millennial" in the traditional sense, and I definitely don't fit in with Gen Z.

The one thing that I feel strongly about it the evolution of things like racism and such.
When *I* was in school, gender wasn't talked about. One day I told my friends I wanted to be genderless and they laughed at me and said, "How will you pee?" ...?!?!? We were in *high school* at that time.

Nowadays, I think kids born around 2000 or later, have been raised more aware of gender differences and the idea that there are more than 2 genders. (Also, I hope kids these days know that 'gender' isn't defined by how you pee.... >:( )

And race was an issue for me too. Kids in my day couldn't understand that a white and a black person could have a child and that that child is biracial. Kids in my day thought, "well, if you have brown skin, that makes you black. You can't have a white parent because if you did, you'd be white. But you're not, so you're ALL black". Meanwhile, the black kids always had to point out that I was "different". I got called "white girl" A lot. The sad thing is, I'm *still* called "white girl" by black people to his day.

Also, those born after 9/11 might not realize how impactful that day was for many people. My dad still has an original newspaper from 9/11.

And the kids of today (some of them anyway) grew up with a black president! I mean, that's mind-blowing to me! I remember when Obama became president, it was amazing! Just the thought... A *black* president! Like, when I was a kid, there weren't even black people in the Disney parades... There was no black princesses or anything!

And not just that... we have a biracial princess! (Meghan Markle)
When I was a kid, there were no biracial people on TV or anything. It was hard because there was no one to really look up to at that time.
When the movie "Belle" came out (Based on a true story of a biracial aristocrat) I cried because all my life, I've never seen a biracial person on TV who wasn't a slave or a sidekick to the main character.... And this woman was REAL on top of that! It was... amazing. Truly.

I hope the next generations never have to experience what I did growing up, and I really hope that they appreciate how far we've come as a society.

[bluebird]

ogre-wilhelmed scream

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Ava

And race was an issue for me too. Kids in my day couldn't understand that a white and a black person could have a child and that that child is biracial. Kids in my day thought, "well, if you have brown skin, that makes you black. You can't have a white parent because if you did, you'd be white. But you're not, so you're ALL black". Meanwhile, the black kids always had to point out that I was "different". I got called "white girl" A lot. The sad thing is, I'm *still* called "white girl" by black people to his day.

See, that's something that really disappoints me about the changes in society since I was young.

When I was a kid, this... just wasn't a thing. I went to school with white kids, black kids, Hispanic kids, Asian kids, Middle Eastern kids, Native American kids... We were all just kids. Sure, race was a concept that we knew about, but it really didn't come into play in anything. Anyone could be friends with anyone. We were all learning the same things and taking the same classes. There was no reason to think that skin color or eye shape or hair texture was something worth discriminating over. It gave us the opportunity to learn about the foods or stories or cultures of another part of the world, so that was cool, that was good, that wasn't a reason to look down on someone.

To this day I still generally can't tell you what race someone is at a glance. It's something I have to actually try to pay attention to.

And yet I see the younger generations making such a big deal over pointing out what race people are, as if that mere fact alone is supposed to influence how I treat them. That goes entirely contrary to the ideals I was raised to believe, and it makes me sad that it's the best time in history for everyone and yet I can't go on Twitter without seeing someone screaming about it.

[Kory]

Originally Posted by Coda

See, that's something that really disappoints me about the changes in society since I was young.

When I was a kid, this... just wasn't a thing. I went to school with white kids, black kids, Hispanic kids, Asian kids, Middle Eastern kids, Native American kids... We were all just kids. Sure, race was a concept that we knew about, but it really didn't come into play in anything. Anyone could be friends with anyone. We were all learning the same things and taking the same classes. There was no reason to think that skin color or eye shape or hair texture was something worth discriminating over. It gave us the opportunity to learn about the foods or stories or cultures of another part of the world, so that was cool, that was good, that wasn't a reason to look down on someone.

To this day I still generally can't tell you what race someone is at a glance. It's something I have to actually try to pay attention to.

And yet I see the younger generations making such a big deal over pointing out what race people are, as if that mere fact alone is supposed to influence how I treat them. That goes entirely contrary to the ideals I was raised to believe, and it makes me sad that it's the best time in history for everyone and yet I can't go on Twitter without seeing someone screaming about it.

I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood and the school I went to was relatively new. That meant that for the first 4 years of my schooling I was the only ethnic child in my grade. (And maybe one of two or three in the whole school) I don't blame the kids, I blame the parents mostly for not teaching their children that people come in all different colors and that it's not "scary" or "weird" for someone to have brown skin.

I didn't see another biracial kid in school until maybe 7th grade. And we kinda had our own little group. We eventually became the "goth"/"emo" kids, though. So we were *actual* spooky, black-clade weirdos without our ethnic background even coming into play lol.

It frustrates me beyond belief that some people seriously think that they can easily tell someone's ethnic background based on the way they look! I know that this is not true, as I've experimented a bit. For a while, I would tell people I was Tamil and I would wear straight wigs... and not *one* person, not even actual Tamil people could tell that I wasn't even Indian!

It's really frustrating. It's also sooooo soooo annoying that there's so much hate for "white" people these days on Twitter and Tumblr and even Facebook sometimes. I've heard so many people shit on white people lately just for being white. I had a friend who had severe white shame even as a kid. I don't like this whole "us vs. them" mentality that's coming up nowadays. People bring race into things that are not even race-related. All these years, I struggled with my ethnic identity having come from a multiracial family... And it hurts to see people be so cruel.
When I came home from the theaters after seeing Logan, I went to Tumblr to share how much fun I had, and the first post that came up for Logan was; "I'm so happy to see Laura rip apart all those white people"...

And it was like... weird? Because Laura herself is white???? I mean, she's Hispanic, but still white?

I don't know why it feels like we're going backwards in society and not forward anymore!

[Stabbsworth]

meghan markle seems like a bit of a prick but it's probably to people against her? or stress. idk. i'm not up in all the royal family's business, i just care abt the fact they're hoarding wealth and items from the rampant colonialism.

i was born in 2002 and all the graphs and such state that i'm in either millennial or gen z with no in-between. i can definitely remember the smart boards in primary school. and i was aware of VHS tapes. (mum apparently used to re-record over tapes with a bit of cardboard, early days of pirating, eh?)

i still don't understand why my mum is 'interested', for lack of a better word, in trans issues and such when she thinks that if you haven't gotten bottom surgery, then you're not the gender you want to be. nevermind the fact that there's often health / phobia reasons to that sort of thing or people just don't feel like shelling out the cash for it or can't shell out the cash for it.

the reason why people hate 'white people' as a whole is probably due to the rampant colonialism from us + white nationalists. we're also complicit in racism, which we should probably work on unlearning as much as possible. plus there's a lot of junk in there about cultural appropriation, i.e: white people misusing AAVE (African American Vernacular English) and such, y'know?

note: i'm white, i may have gotten a few things wrong in this, plus my information retention is god-awful, so there's definitely very likely to be a few things wrong in this sort of thing, and there's probably a more eloquent way to put it but i'm on my first energy drink of the day.

[Stabbsworth]

actual vent because the other post is already way too long with too many words in the paragraphs, but god, it would be nice if i could fucking feel loved. not sure if this is due to undiagnosed mental fuckery or a starsign thing.

i'm fairly certain neurotypical people can comprehend that they're loved. i can't, for some reason, which makes me want more attention near constantly and it's frustrating to deal with. i know there's something wrong here. can't do a single thing about it because, you know, the UK is utter fucking shit with mental health care despite being a halfway decent country as a result of near-universal healthcare, but we still have to pay for therapy.

and medication. god.

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Ava

I don't like this whole "us vs. them" mentality that's coming up nowadays. People bring race into things that are not even race-related.

I don't know why it feels like we're going backwards in society and not forward anymore!

Right? But it always gives me a glimmer of hope to see people who recognize that the current trends aren't healthy. It shows me the seed of the future that we can reach towards.

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Voidbarker

the reason why people hate 'white people' as a whole is probably due to the rampant colonialism from us + white nationalists. we're also complicit in racism, which we should probably work on unlearning as much as possible. plus there's a lot of junk in there about cultural appropriation, i.e: white people misusing AAVE (African American Vernacular English) and such, y'know?

People hate "white people" because white people have become a symbol of racist oppression. Not that they are racist oppressors, but just that people want to blame SOMEONE for the ills of the modern world, and white people as a group are acceptable targets because on average in Western society white people are wealthier, more powerful, and more numerous. Being able to point to historical evils provides an excuse to make it seem more okay.

White people aren't inherently complicit in racism. To suggest they are is, itself, racist. White people don't perpetuate racism just by being white. There shouldn't be anything to unlearn for today's youth -- we've got three generations now where kids have been brought up in a world that recognizes that racial superiority is a myth.

The only thing that people need to learn is that different doesn't mean bad. Humans have an innate bias to gravitate towards people who are like them, and to shy away from people who aren't like them. If you don't show kids that it's okay to associate with people who look different, they won't generally pick it up on their own. Which means that what's going on in modern culture is counterproductive, because it's training kids to avoid people of other races lest they accidentally hurt them or be hurt by them.

It's true that there are unfair systematic phenomena in place that disadvantage minority groups. That doesn't mean it's racism -- it's just easier to be successful if you're starting from a better position. Pointing blame at the people who have a head start through no fault of their own doesn't solve that. Helping people in need does.

As a side note: Cultural appropriation as a concept has, itself, been misappropriated. It's a real thing, but it has little relation to what the average person today thinks it is. It's not "cultural appropriation" to admire other cultures and to enjoy the things that make them unique. It's not cultural appropriation for an American to wear a kimono, or for a white person's spoken dialect to include some stereotypically-black elements. Cultural appropriation is what happened with jazz in the 1920s -- a larger, more powerful group took a style from a smaller group, presented it as their own, and crowded the original creators out of their own market. If you're explicitly honoring the original culture instead of claiming it as your own, it's not cultural appropriation, and if your own culture has started to absorb some of the other culture as a natural process without denying that to the original culture, that's not cultural appropriation either.

Originally Posted by Voidbarker

i'm fairly certain neurotypical people can comprehend that they're loved. i can't, for some reason, which makes me want more attention near constantly and it's frustrating to deal with. i know there's something wrong here. can't do a single thing about it because, you know, the UK is utter fucking shit with mental health care despite being a halfway decent country as a result of near-universal healthcare, but we still have to pay for therapy.

All the hugs, man. :(

[Stabbsworth]

we created the system in the first place, therefore we should probably take some responsibility for it and help to dismantle it.

i have no idea what the fuck is going on with my brain tbh.

[Kory]

I can relate to the mental health issues.
Personally, I always felt that mental health care here in the USA is horrible unless you have really good insurance.
I was committed last year, it wasn’t the first time, but it was the first time I’d be committed in a different state. It was absolutely horrible. I heard in the UK when you go inpatient, you’re allowed to keep your phone and such. Also, from what I’ve seen in the UK you usually get your own room too.

In my home state, I’d sometimes get my own rooom when I was inpatient. But here in California, the rooms were 6:1. It was really bad. :(

Medication, I heard in the UK is hard to come by, though.
I understood that teens in the UK canr be prescribed antipsychotics until they are older?
I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.

I’m on mobile right now, so I will reply to the other message later.

[Kory]

Originally Posted by Voidbarker

actual vent because the other post is already way too long with too many words in the paragraphs, but god, it would be nice if i could fucking feel loved. not sure if this is due to undiagnosed mental fuckery or a starsign thing.

i'm fairly certain neurotypical people can comprehend that they're loved. i can't, for some reason, which makes me want more attention near constantly and it's frustrating to deal with. i know there's something wrong here. can't do a single thing about it because, you know, the UK is utter fucking shit with mental health care despite being a halfway decent country as a result of near-universal healthcare, but we still have to pay for therapy.

and medication. god.

Oh! I think I misunderstood!
I’m sorry if my last post doesn’t really apply, I guess I read it too fast and thought you were taking about general mental heath stuff like the system like CMHT or NHS?

Regardless, I also have mental health issues and diagnoses and I can completely relate to what you’re kind through.
If you want to talk about it, I don’t mind listening :)

[Stabbsworth]

i have no idea what the heck happened here but i'm complaining because we still have to pay for medication. i'm seventeen. government refuses to cover the cost of my meds unless i'm on the job seekers.

[Merskelly Metalien]

>~>; I'm scared...
I'm scared I'm gonna get sick. I'm gonna catch a bad cold/flu from my mom.
And it's gonna be like how sick I was for a month..
<~<; I wanna miss classes but, I really don't like being miserable and ill either... </3
Can't I just have a 3 day cold like I used to?
Does there really have to be fever, dehydration, nausea and congestion involved???
;_; Does there have to be near-death inside me??
I'm probably already sick. >M>; I can't tell if I'm sore from working out yesterday, or they're body sores from a virus..
I need to just decide not to get sick, and I won't get sick right? /:{
I'm not gonna do this. -~-; I'm not gonna get sick. Nope. Not doing that.

[Kory]

Originally Posted by Voidbarker

meghan markle seems like a bit of a prick but it's probably to people against her? or stress. idk. i'm not up in all the royal family's business, i just care abt the fact they're hoarding wealth and items from the rampant colonialism.

i was born in 2002 and all the graphs and such state that i'm in either millennial or gen z with no in-between. i can definitely remember the smart boards in primary school. and i was aware of VHS tapes. (mum apparently used to re-record over tapes with a bit of cardboard, early days of pirating, eh?)

i still don't understand why my mum is 'interested', for lack of a better word, in trans issues and such when she thinks that if you haven't gotten bottom surgery, then you're not the gender you want to be. nevermind the fact that there's often health / phobia reasons to that sort of thing or people just don't feel like shelling out the cash for it or can't shell out the cash for it.

the reason why people hate 'white people' as a whole is probably due to the rampant colonialism from us + white nationalists. we're also complicit in racism, which we should probably work on unlearning as much as possible. plus there's a lot of junk in there about cultural appropriation, i.e: white people misusing AAVE (African American Vernacular English) and such, y'know?

note: i'm white, i may have gotten a few things wrong in this, plus my information retention is god-awful, so there's definitely very likely to be a few things wrong in this sort of thing, and there's probably a more eloquent way to put it but i'm on my first energy drink of the day.

Originally Posted by Voidbarker

i have no idea what the heck happened here but i'm complaining because we still have to pay for medication. i'm seventeen. government refuses to cover the cost of my meds unless i'm on the job seekers.

Ohh!
I saw my first smart board in high school! Our school only had one because we won some contest or something and they were expensive!
Back when I was in elementary school, we used mirrors and lights as "projectors" xD It's so crazy to see that even kindergartners now have smart boards! My family got our first DVD player when I was 9, I think. Our first DVD was Monsters Inc. LOL

It's come a long long way, I think, from when I was a kid to now. Gender identity is more openly discussed and more accepted, I feel. Not that we're perfect, there's always going to be those *holes who think that "gender" is defined by how you pee or what your genitals look like... But it's come very far, I feel.

I don't believe white people are inherently racist. It really hurts me when people think so too. I knew someone recently who said something along the lines of "Let's just cancel white people", she was white herself. It doesn't help to separate people like that by race. Imagine someone saying, "Let's just get rid of all black people", they'd be crucified for saying that. And I do get it, white people have done bad things in the past... But what culture *hasn't*?? The African tribes were the ones who sold their slaves to the British. The British people didn't technically start it, the African tribes who had slaves to begin with did so...

That being said, I do believe in white privilege. It's obvious, when you look at TV and movies, you usually always see white people as the lead characters and if there is a black character, they are the "token" black person and they are usually biracial or very fair skinned with loose curly hair...

I've had someone tell me once that I had "mixed privilege" And I was like... "???? I didn't get the 'best of both worlds' as some would put it... I got the *worst* of both worlds"

Amandla Stenberg made a video called "Don't Cash Crop on My Cornrows" and it was about cultural appropriation. I feel that if some white person wants to wear cornrows, then what's the issue? It's just a hairstyle... and who's to say it belongs to black people only??

Originally Posted by Merskelly Metalien

>~>; I'm scared...
I'm scared I'm gonna get sick. I'm gonna catch a bad cold/flu from my mom.
And it's gonna be like how sick I was for a month..
<~<; I wanna miss classes but, I really don't like being miserable and ill either... </3
Can't I just have a 3 day cold like I used to?
Does there really have to be fever, dehydration, nausea and congestion involved???
;_; Does there have to be near-death inside me??
I'm probably already sick. >M>; I can't tell if I'm sore from working out yesterday, or they're body sores from a virus..
I need to just decide not to get sick, and I won't get sick right? /:{
I'm not gonna do this. -~-; I'm not gonna get sick. Nope. Not doing that.

D:

I hate sick!! When I worked with kids, I got sick like every other month. And it was always something bad like strep throat ;-;

I hope you don't get sick! Getting sick is no bueno!

My parents used to say if you felt a little sick, you should take loads of vit C!

[Stabbsworth]

if you're not from a culture, you don't have any say on whether taking elements from said culture is appropriative or not, as far as i know.

gestures in an excessively vague manner because i'm very tired and not up to debating random crap right now.

actual vent: i wish i could comprehend that i can be loved.