Bashing Boomers + Maligning Millennials
“You’re not a baby boomer if you don’t have a visceral recollection of a Kennedy and a King assassination, a Beatles breakup, a US defeat in Vietnam, and a Watergate.” - PJ O’Rourke
Photo by Janosch Lino on Unsplash
A few years ago I was teaching AP Literature to a highly motivated group of high school seniors. We had just finished reading The Importance of Being Earnest, and a Victorian Tea Party marked our culminating event of the unit. I made cucumber sandwiches but left them in the car as my hands were full carrying in other supplies.
I got to class and handed my keys to one of my best and brightest students and sent her out to Big Red to grab them.
She returned and said, “I love your SUV! It’s so cute that your seat is up close because you’re so tiny! And it smelled so good in there -- just like how I imagined a little old lady’s car would smell.”
Pause. Double pause.
The fragrance was Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle.
And, oh, yeah -- I was 40.
I’m not a Boomer; I’m part of that in-between, often-overlooked group known as Generation X. Born between 1965 and 1980, we were the original “latchkey” kids, often left to fend for ourselves after school and perpetually self-sufficient as a result. After coming of age at the tail end of the Cold War, we lived in fear of a nuclear holocaust (and quicksand) as a result of pop culture’s influence. Now we serve as a “link” between our aging parents and our young adult children, both of whom may need our time, care, and financial support.
Gen Xers, thankfully, find themselves on the outside of the Boomers vs. Millennials media war. It’s difficult to navigate social media platforms and “news” outlets like BuzzFeed without stumbling upon “Boomer Bashing” and “Millennial Maligning.”
For years, Baby Boomers and Millennials have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous attacks lobbed and received from both sides. Boomers, people born between 1946 and 1964, have notoriously referred to Millennials (those “youngsters” born between 1981 and 1996) as “lazy, entitled snowflakes.” (That is what they say, isn’t it?)
Can we then blame the Millennial who shoots back with, “OK Boomer,” after an insult is flung their way?
On the other hand, Millennials love to call Boomers “cranky, self-absorbed, tech-resistant geezers” who just want “those dang kids to get off the lawn!” (Right?)
Meanwhile, my Gen X friends and I snack on our proverbial popcorn and watch intergenerational snubs pass back and forth like volleys in a vigorous tennis match.
We’re better than this. The current conflict between generations represents an overused trope, worn out from its repetition through the ages. The Greatest Generation, for example, those who parented the Boomers, were outraged by Elvis’s pelvic thrusts and the Beatles’ long hair. The idea of “young whippersnappers” and “old fuddy-duddies” doing battle goes back further than we might realize.
Acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a Ted Talk in 2009 titled “The Danger of a Single Story.” In her speech, she warns that painting people with a broad stroke reduces them to a “stereotype,” and “the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
Photo by Bogomil Mihaylov on Unsplash
It’s too easy to reduce each other to stereotypes and not recognize our individual strengths and weaknesses. While we could easily diminish a Boomer to a cliche, maybe we should embrace the experience and soft skills they bring to the table while, simultaneously, appreciating the tech-savviness and compassion of our Millennial friends. If we open ourselves to learning from each other, the sky’s the limit.
Strong mutual working relationships can happen in healthy and supportive environments. I have literally witnessed my current department chair walk into the hallway and yell, “I need a Millennial!” And lo and behold, a Millennial appeared on the scene who helped her with her tech issues. And not three weeks later, that same young teacher needed help with a parent conference, and my queen department chair came to her rescue and defended her in a very heated meeting.
One of the most fulfilling relationships of my professional life was my collaboration with a really young Millennial (maybe a Zillennial?). Jamie and I taught and collaborated together for two years and capitalized on each others’ strengths. We checked our egos at the door and embraced the expertise each one of us brought to the table. Oh, and our test scores kicked ass.
It can be done, but it takes effort and intentionality.
Finally, let me present a personal example of the dangers of stereotypes in the workplace. At one of my previous places of employment, a department chair (who is, incidentally, a Millennial) called me “an old fart” (among other things) to my face.
Her comment failed to encompass any other complexities, strengths, or characteristics I possessed. The insult was ageist and condescending. She attempted to reduce me to “a single story.”
I got the last laugh, though; I submitted my retirement letter the following week and got a job offer from my current employer shortly thereafter.
We are all defined by so much more than the year we were born.
This article was originally published March 18, 2023, in the Southern Spice section of Times-Georgian.
