Her Name Was Shirley [Esquire]

reniqua allen
Reporting

If you have watched any television or films about Black life recently, you have almost certainly come across a striking photograph of a six year old standing alongside her aunt in Alabama under a Colored Entrance sign. The photo, part of a series that ran in Life magazine in 1956, has been used to exemplify an America that once was—but the story of its subject and the dreams she once had is long overdue.

The American Dream already eluded millennials of color. Then came coronavirus. [The Washington Post]

The American Dream already eluded millennials of color. Then came coronavirus. [The Washington Post]

reniqua allen
Commentary, Reporting

I also worry for the well-being of my millennial peers: We pursued higher education as its costs ballooned, and entered the workforce just when the recession hit. What used to be called a “career” has become a string of gigs. When our parents were our age, they owned over 20 percent of the nation’s wealth; today, we have just 3 percent. Now, just as many are starting families, the coronavirus threatens an economic downturn on a scale that this country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression.

But I’m especially worried about a particular slice of my generational cohort: young people of color, who are far more vulnerable than their white peers to crises like the coronavirus.

I Never Thought I’d Have to Fight Infertility and a Pandemic [Zora]

I Never Thought I’d Have to Fight Infertility and a Pandemic [Zora]

reniqua allen
Commentary

For months, I have felt like my future was uncertain. Panic attacks were routine. Tears, a daily event. Anger, mixed with doubt, fear, and sometimes a little bit of hope, filled my body. I seemed to have no control over the thing I wanted most in the world, and it felt like there was nothing I could do about it. Month after month, my body kept confirming that rejection, and month after month, I cried until my tears ran dry, trying to accept and live with the unknown while accepting the current reality: I may never be able to become pregnant.And then Covid-19 was thrust into the world. By the time the virus hit New York City, those uncontrollable feelings had tripled. The whole world was now in a panic, and the word “uncertainty” became a part of my daily vocabulary and everyone else’s. Life spun out of control, and no one knew what the future held. My problems with trying to create life suddenly felt small as the world’s focus turned to preserving life. Suddenly it seemed like everyone was facing a reality that was out of their control.

‘OK boomer’ wasn’t young Americans’ first rallying cry [The Washington Post]

‘OK boomer’ wasn’t young Americans’ first rallying cry [The Washington Post]

reniqua allen

I’ll admit, I think “OK boomer” and the memes it has spawned are a funny response to the older generation’s befuddlement about the modern world. But the rise of the phrase also leaves me (an older millennial, or more specifically, a “xennial”) scratching my head. I thought millennials and Gen Z already had our rallying cry — one that was created not just as a sarcastic response to adults who don’t understand the plight of younger generations, but one that was an actual call to action.

ON BLACK MILLENNIALS IN SEARCH OF THE NEW SOUTH [LitHub]

ON BLACK MILLENNIALS IN SEARCH OF THE NEW SOUTH [LitHub]

reniqua allen
Book

Over the last few years I’ve been trying to find the “New South” that young Black millennials like me are moving to. That Black Mecca of upwardly mobile Black folk that is so prominent in the Black imagination. But I can’t. I look for it every time I visit the South. Instead of a feeling of freedom and comfort, all I feel is the weight of a past that doesn’t feel so distant. I want to love places like Charlotte, Charleston, Memphis, and of course Atlanta, the place the SNL writer Michael Che called the “Blackest” city in America, but it’s been hard. It’s been even harder after Trump became our president and I see Klan and Nazi rallies and White power signs peppering the region.

The American Dream Isn't For Black Millennials [The New York Times]

The American Dream Isn't For Black Millennials [The New York Times]

reniqua allen
Book

The American dream, the idea that anyone can succeed through hard work, is one of the most enduring myths in this country. And one of its most prominent falsehoods. As I entered my 30s, still navigating what achieving the dream would mean, I wondered what other black millennials were feeling. I wanted to figure out what my generation of black Americans thought about the promise of the American dream and how we can attain it.

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