Youth Bias Listening Session November 21st
By Albert B. Kelly
If the stats are right, and I believe they are, one out of
every four young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old have been
targeted in some way because of their race, ethnicity, gender, orientation,
religion, or immigration status. This isn’t a new thing; discrimination and bias
have always been present in society. What is relatively new is that we no
longer just accept it as the price of being different which is why I encourage
young people and the not-so-young to take part in the Youth Bias listening session
on November 21st from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at John Wesley United
Methodist Church in Bridgeton.
It matters because there was a time, not all that long ago,
when I believed that our country was leaning in the right direction as far as
discrimination and bias. I’m not sure why I believed this, but I did. Maybe it
was the blood that was spilled for the sake of civil rights and equality or
maybe it was the naïve notion that more of those reflexive tribal hatreds would
go to the grave with each successive generation so that hope would forever rest
with the young. Whatever it was, the glass was always half-full.
But these days it’s awfully hard to hang onto to that
optimism and I’m afraid I’m slipping into glass half-empty territory. I’d like
to think that some of my cynicism and fatigue is simply a byproduct of growing
old, but I suspect that more of it has to do with the fact that those old
tribal hatreds have been legitimized, given a champion, and made to be the
underpinnings of policy and governance. So the glass seems half-empty and I’m
tired.
But not so much the young, who will ultimately have to
decide for themselves whether the tribal hatreds will harden into yet another
generation going forward. I wouldn’t bet against them, but it won’t be easy. I
say that because in reviewing data from a report entitled “Diversity, Division, Discrimination: The State of Young America” from
PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) and MTV, today’s youth face more issues
than previous generations.
In terms of race, Hispanic (24%), black (30%), Asian/Pacific
Islander (35%) youth were more likely than white youth (4%) to have experienced
racially-motivated discrimination over the course of the last twelve months. No
less than 32% of young people who identified as LGBT were targeted specifically
because of gender or orientation and more than half the young women surveyed (54%)
either witnessed or experienced gender discrimination.
Some other conclusions from this lengthy report include the
fact that there is widespread agreement among young people that Muslims face
substantial discrimination in the U.S., most young people believe that
discrimination against Muslims and transgender people is on the rise, most
young people who experience discrimination believe it is purposeful, and more
than four in ten report fearing for their personal safety. On the plus side, roughly
half of young people who have witnessed bias say they have intervened, and are
more likely to do so if they know the victim.
As for our current moment, the report indicates that young
people express more negative than positive views about recent protests and
marches (close to half of young women overall view them favorably), young women
are more socially and politically active than young men, and young people
support free speech on campus, even if its content is offensive.
However, drilling into the nut of the matter, eight in ten
(80%) black young people and a majority of Asian/Pacific Islanders (55%) and
Hispanic (52%) young people say race relations are a critical issue to them
personally, while only 37% of white young people feel that way. Nearly half
(46%) of white young women say race relations are a critical concern to them
personally, compared to only 29% of white young men.
This is just a sampling, but the report has far more detail
then I can cover here and I encourage anyone interested in these issues to view
the report in its entirety ( https://www.prri.org/research/mtv-culture-and-religion/)
as it has some revealing data that is worth considering.
My fatigue and cynicism of the moment notwithstanding, the report
says that young people (age 15-24) have a positive outlook on the country’s
future. Nearly six in ten (59%) say America’s best days lie ahead, while only
41% say the country’s best days are behind us. That’s no small thing.