Lost post #2

Lately I’ve been randomly getting logged out of Squarespace while writing posts. I just wrote a nice, relatively short one, but I got logged out in the process and was not smart enough to copy and paste it somewhere else. So I’ll have to write it again another time.

Lesson learned, my friend. Lesson learned.

Anyway, just for fun: How new media are you?

Gen Y is not the first post racial generation

In doing research for my posts at the TalentEgg blog, I often come across articles that have nothing to do with student and new grad careers. There is much discussion, especially by Baby Boomers, about what it means to be part of Gen Y and how the older generations can come to understand us.

Today I found a great post by Adam Singer over at The Future Buzz in which he discusses the most common myths about Gen Y from a Gen Y perspective — a phenomenon that is less common that you’d think.

I agree with most of what he says, more or less. However, his statement that “Gen Y is colorblind, race blind and open to all lifestyle choices” pushed me to finally write about this idea — this question, really — that has been popping up in Gen Y blogs all year:

Is Generation Y the first colour blind, post racial, super accepting, unbigoted generation in the history of humanity?

Gen Y is the first generation for which this question could be asked with sincerity. It’s an important one, but it was probably brought on by the support by young people of Barack Obama during the election. Especially young, relatively wealthy white people who say they were so inspired by him.

I’m not American, but I’m a young, middle-class white woman and I was inspired by him. I stayed up to watch Obama win and I got tears in my eyes and goosebumps on my skin. Similar to Ryan Healy, “it was never about race. It was about hope and change and the future of our country.”

But it doesn’t mean we can’t see his, or anyone else’s, skin colour and everything that goes along with it.

Racialization still exists in our generation alongside sexism, homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia despite Gen Y being more racially and culturally mixed, more exposed to other races and cultures through media, and less inclined to think it’s okay to hold people back based on pre-determined factors such as skin colour, gender or sexuality.

As Saaret Yoseph points out at The Root, “… diversity doesn’t necessarily equate to cultural understanding. Gen Y’ers often deal with race in an overt, in-your-face manner through jokes, stereotypical references and cultural tourism.”

It’s understandable that we’re not exactly sure how to deal with race — things aren’t as clear cut as they used to be in North America. There are many different experiences, skin colours, cultures to take into consideration, not just black and white. And probably none of our peers, nor most of their parents, have experienced the kind of violence and discrimination non-white Americans faced in previous generations.

Image credit: thanasim25Barack Obama is a good example of this. He is The First Black President even though his mother is white and his father is simply African and not African-American. Due to America’s continued history of racialization based on the one-drop rule, he’s black. But we know he’s actually multiracial and he doesn’t really fit into the stereotypical black male caricature so familiar in pop culture. What does that mean for him and everyone else?

I don’t know yet. But I know that in order to find out we can’t label ourselves, or allow others to label us, “colour blind” or “post racial” or ignorant to any other differences between us. The conversation has to continue. It’s not good enough to just not hate others anymore — although there is still plenty of hatred in my generation.

We have to figure out where our differences come from, what they mean in relation to the current power structure in our society and how we can help each other try to understand them. Not understanding is very different from not wanting to understand.

So while Gen Y probably isn’t the first post racial generation, we may be the first generation truly willing to understand what it means to be something other than what we are and to understand why these labels and categories hold such value in our society, especially as we become increasingly multiracial, multicultural and nonreligious.

Getting geeky with Feedly

After a month and a half, I’ve ditched Digsby. It was always disconnecting and reconnecting and just generally being annoying. I’ve decided to go back to the original chat clients and manage e-mail and social networks through Firefox add-ons.

But I found the greatest thing along the way — Feedly is an RSS feed reader (and Firefox add-on) that organizes feeds into a more visually appealing magazine-style page. It integrates and communicates with Google Reader so all my feeds were ready to go as soon as I clicked. Anything I add via Feedly is automatically sent to Google Reader in case I decide to stop using Feedly. But I highly doubt it.

If you regularly visit more than a few websites each day checking for updates and you’re not already using an RSS feed reader, I would recommend getting started. I’ve subscribed to just under 100 feeds so far and Google Reader was fine for me.

Feedly is a step up, though. The feeds are there, but it’s much more visually interesting and actually looks like a well-designed website itself. It also has a screensaver option that shows photographs and headlines from the most recent updates in a slideshow.

I resolve to not make resolutions

Through November and December, I applied to about 10 internships at newspapers across the country. So far I’ve received only one response — thanking me for applying.

More deadlines are coming up this month and the next at smaller newspapers in smaller cities. That’s fine, I’ll apply. But it still doesn’t feel real.

I graduate in four months.
I’m supposed to have a job in four months.
I don’t have any new year’s resolutions.
I just want to find a job.
I don’t want the last four years of my life to feel like an epic fail.

Welcome to 2009! The first year of the rest of your life…

Trying to find joy

The economy is bad, Parliament was suspended almost immediately after the latest federal election, and the conflict in Gaza is more divisive and destructive than ever. I thought those issues would surely dominate casual conversation over the holidays this year.

However, I was suprised to find that many people are still trying to decide if Christmas truly is merry for everyone while others argue that saying “Happy Holidays” is an attempt by non-Christians to destroy Christmas.

The latter argument is one that popped up repeatedly within my own family. Although my immediate family and I are not religious at all, one side of my family is Catholic. They actually attend church every Sunday, include priests in their circle of close friends and say grace before dinner. On Christmas Eve, they go to midnight mass (we leave). I’m sure some are back at church on Christmas Day as well (we hang out at home enjoying our gifts and the company of family). Some of my boyfriend’s family, while not Catholic, still consider themselves to be Christians.

Relatives from both of our families shocked me this year by speaking out against the secularization of Christmas.

Some said they were offended when cashiers wished them “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” at store check-outs. They said they feel it’s an attempt to take the Christianity out of Christmas and an example of how other cultures are trying to destroy “our” traditions.

Others expressed anger after seeing people who probably don’t celebrate Christmas (for example, a woman wearing a hijab or a man wearing a turban) among the crowds of shoppers taking advantage of sale prices at big box stores shortly before Christmas.

Another said she refused to buy anything from stores or restaurants on Christmas Day, such as Tim Horton’s or McDonald’s, because she thinks everything should remain closed to honour the holiday.

As I listened to these people boo-hoo, what I heard was, “How dare people from other cultures and religions live their lives and do their best to get by while we celebrate Christmas.”

There are other holidays that come up during the “Christmas season,” which now lasts from Halloween through the new year thanks to the commercialization of Christmas. Also, not everyone celebrates Christmas, but most people take part in some holiday celebration or another. “Happy Holidays” makes sense to me and has basically become synonymous with “Merry Christmas.”

However, many people say “Merry Christmas” anyway. One of my friends, who is Muslim, sent me a text message saying, “Merry Christmas!” on the day. It doesn’t offend her to say it and it warms my heart to know she was thinking of me. (But I need to start being a better friend by acknowledging the big holidays my friends of different backgrounds celebrate as well.)

I’m not even going to touch the one about non-celebrators further crowding stores because it’s too ridiculous.

As for certain businesses opening on Christmas Day, I say, Why not? More often than not, employees of these businesses work part-time hours and make minimum wage. Most would jump at the chance to earn a few extra dollars per hour. In urban centres especially, increasingly it is adult women with families who have recently immigrated to Canada working in these jobs traditionally relegated to teenagers.

I’m sure there are enough people out there who would love their double-double or Big Mac on Christmas Day whether they celebrate Christmas or not.

On the other extreme end of things are people like Penelope Trunk, who rants about Christmas annually on her blog. (See also 2007 and 2006.)

While I agree that it’s not a good idea to bring Christmas (or any other remotely religious part of life) into the office, it doesn’t make financial sense for most places of business to be open on Christmas Day.

If the company has them, it’s hypocritical to force employees to use their paid floating holidays for holidays they actually celebrate while everyone gets Christmas off. Sure. But, right now, I don’t think there’s a good or easy way to fix it.

If there is a diverse enough workforce, it could work, but there needs to be more diversity in more places. Outside of large cities and towns in North America, the population is predominantly either Christian or people with Christian ancestors. Unless there are enough people to cover the various holidays, floating holidays probably won’t work. Each company would have to assess its diversity and proceed accordingly.

But then Christians, like the ones in my family, will have something new to complain about.

For me, Christmas is about a lot of things, but religion least of all. Family, home cooked meals, baked goods, exchanging thoughtful (not necessarily extravagant) gifts, taking a break, finding some joy during the most unpleasant season of the year all come to mind.

I hope everyone, whether they celebrate the “holiday season” or not, can find some joy. The opportunities are all around us and we limit ourselves and each other by trading harsh words and prejudices.