Friday, May 30, 2014



Christian Science Monitor reports that millennials see themselves as post racial. MTV tries to give them some perspective:
A majority of young people believe racism is more a problem for previous generations than it is for their own. And most young people – 73 percent of whites, 66 percent of nonwhites – say they don’t see racial minorities any differently than they see white people, according to a survey conducted for the youth-oriented cable network MTV... Perhaps most strikingly, a majority of those surveyed, who range in age from 14 to 24, agree that “having a black president demonstrates that racial minorities have the same opportunities as white people.” Among young white people, the figure was 64 percent, and among young people of color, it was 58 percent...
“Millennials are the most diverse generation in history, and it’s inspiring to see how equality and fairness serve as their bedrock values,” says Stephen Friedman, president of MTV, in a statement. “However, that very faith in equality can also cloud their perception of historical and institutional inequities.” One example of this “cloudy perception” is the belief by half of white Millennials that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against people of color, the network notes.
MTV conducted the survey in preparation for a multiyear campaign called “Look Different,” which aims to prepare young people to counter what the network calls “the hidden racial, gender, and anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) biases all around us.” The “Look Different” campaign includes on-air content, including a documentary-style program called “Untitled Whiteness Project,” and social-media outreach.

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