Nothing Left To Prove, Millennials Are Resisting On Their Own Terms

Members of the generations before us speak as if our generation has endured no hardship. As if no one from my generation, The Millennials, has been executed in cold blood.  As if my generation is not being tear gassed and shot at for simply organizing, peacefully and voicing their concerns. No matter how many receipts we provide showing how conscious and active we are, there always seems to be a push for us to further prove ourselves.

What more do you want, activists of days gone by? Have we not bled enough to be taken seriously? Have we not lost enough lives to be acknowledged in the league of activism? Have we not voiced our issues and shouted to the mountaintops that we’ve had enough, loud enough? Have we not looked to you for leadership, wisdom, answers, only to be told we need to do more, we need to do better? Have we not asked for your help only to hear you regurgitate the lies of the systems that seek to quell us back into complacency?

What else do we need to do?

I’m sure there will never be a clear answer to that question. But while those who want to stand in the way of the Millennial Resistance try to think of one, we’ll be over here marching and shutting down malls and getting all up in the way of the compliant. I think it’s safe to say our generation has finally reached a point where we no longer seek or care about the approval of the generations that fought before us, especially not those who spend more time fighting against us.

We honor your fight, and we are grateful for your battles won. We respect what you accomplished. That being said, we’re no longer waiting on you to give the go-ahead on whether our methods of resistance and fighting for justice are good enough or effective enough. We’re no longer going to sit around idly and wait for the results of the methods you convinced us would work, the methods you  promised would earn us change, our freedom, equality. You say we need to take responsibility for our shortcomings so here we are taking responsibility for so blindly believing the generations before us had our best interest at heart.

For so wholeheartedly assuming the stories of marching against dogs and fire hoses would automatically translate to support for our fight against oppression. We my friends are done waiting and have been done for quite some time. You can probably mark the day Zimmerman was declared ‘Not Guilty’ as the day Millennials realized the current system wasn’t here for us-that voting and smiling in the face of police officers would save us from racist authorities, improve our quality of life, save our lives.

To those who stand with us and have faith that we know how to fight our inherited battles, we welcome your wisdom and your solidarity. To those who are so busy spouting respectability politics on camera for the powers and institutions that be and dwelling on what you did “back in your day,” that you can’t see your own children and grandchildren are drowning, we’re going to need you to get out of the way. You’re blocking our progress.