It, like most things in life, is generational.

I look at the world we live in, and sometimes I think our problem is generational mentalities. Now, you may have been born in the decades immediately following World War II, and if you were, I'm probably about to offend you.
Baby boomers are the most destructive generation in human history.
For the most part, these weren't conscious negative decisions, and in all honesty, it was the generation of the baby boomers' grandparents who set them up for this awe inspiring achievement. I don't look at the intent of the majority of baby boomers with much contempt, but at some point, I do think they could've made a choice. There are, after all, a huge number of people of that generation who are quite aware of the problems they've created. That number is still such an insignificant proportion of the total that it makes little difference.
How can a generation be so significant? How could anyone we know make such a negative impact in the grand scheme of all of human history? Questions like that attest to the problem. Questions like that are asked by the baby boomers themselves. It's a way of shifting blame- of placating one's conscience. People who say that we are insignificant in the run of mankind also, in the same breath, will tell you that modern times are the most enlightened and accomplished. They'll say that we have advanced more in the last one hundred years than humankind has in the last two thousand, but then they tell you that we're too insignificant to affect anything such as the environment. So, which is it?
I started down this path of thought when I tried to imagine what my grandchildren might be doing when they're my age. What will be their issues? It occurred to me that they will still be trying to fix the problems of the baby boomers, but to my grandchildren, the baby boomers will be an abstract historical group of people. There won't be the face of mom, dad, grandpa, or grandma, to associate with the generation. It will only be a group of people that created a huge number of problems that they are still trying to solve. It was at this point that the baby boomers became something different in my mind. How do I explain that my parents, aunts, uncles, teachers, and friends took a bad situation and made it worse?
I look at our world, and I'm forced to see it as a generational struggle. I see one generation taking advantage of the world, and another, taught to be apathetic, watching everything get worse and worse- year by year. What happens when the former steps down? What happens when retirement, ill health, and death leaves the reins of our people in the limp hands of my generation? Will it be business as usual or will we have the courage to step up and live our lives for us?

Starting Place

In the last couple of years, and the last few months even more so, I've been motivated to accept a concept that is difficult to completely understand. I think the reasons why this is difficult to swallow, at least for my generation (that being some blend Generation X and Generation Y), are:
(1) X/Y has been programed to not notice problems of race to benefit political and economic forces of the country.
(2) X/Y has grown up in a world where racism is significantly more covert and discreet than previous generations experienced.
(3) Modern race issues are multifaceted to the point that it's just easier to dismiss. If you really wanted to understand it well enough to do something about it, you'd be looking at a regular headache.
My girlfriend's class T.A. produced this very simple but explicit video on one of the core concepts behind modern race/class inequities.

We are not all equal because we do not have the same starting place in life. If you can see the basics of this concept, you'll see that equal opportunity is a fallacy. Modern race issues are economically based, and economic inequality results in poorer health and lower levels of education which lead to about every other problem you can imagine.
Martin Luther King said, "To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor," so keeping with the theme of this blog, what can you do about this?