A Post-Election Apology and Assessment From an Elder to Youth

A Post-Election Apology and Assessment From an Elder to Youth

My son who writes on this blog occasionally and I debate often on whether elders owe more to youth than the other way around in black America. We usually end up saying both could do more for the greater good of all. Today I’m offering him and youth in general an apology for the lack of impact black elders are responsible for that allowed the 45th president to be Donald J. Trump

I had November 8th, 2016 marked on my calendar to vote about 6 months ago and as a progressive, I have monitored myself throughout this election year. I observed the republican, green, libertarian, and democratic candidates and by April felt that Bernie Sanders spoke to what America needed the best. Sadly he was persuaded to leave the race just before the convention.

I attended a Sanders rally to find out that if elected how would he unify the party in off-year elections? I was told he would depend on his existing under thirty, millennial voting block to guide minors and current high school students to vote out candidates who were not progressives when eligible to vote. Currently, 12 to 17-year-olds comprise over 20 million potential voters. Add to that the grace and respect that he gave BLM during his campaign compared to the push back by the democratic nominee and most of my black elders and I am annoyed and troubled.

Perhaps too many black elders have blind allegiance to the DNC. This is why I blog about the philosophical wariness between black baby boomers (my generation) and black millennia. Each group has its own implicit biases about the other.

Both are complicit regarding black-on-black homicide, buying white, religious underachievement, fatherless households, self-doubt, political correctness vs. common sense, monetary spending not investing, etc. Plus in 2016 with the daily media coverage of conservative America with decided to remain split in the face of smash-mouth efforts to turn this country’s clock back at least 100 years.

As descendants of slaves, we’re better than this. Too many of our youth think the world started when they were born—not true. Our history shows that we’ve got to know the signs of our gullibility and teach our youth by example not a lecture. Oppression from white America especially against African and Native Americans is relentless. We are not in a post-civil rights era and we are still learning to take care of ourselves.

Yes, I think millennia’s own much of the dawning of the Trump era and all that will socially come with it. But for now, I apologize for what role African American elders played in allowing this to happen. Finally to those who agree with this blog, don’t stay mad or be sad, get even.

by B. Mchie