Meet the New Optimists - Newsweek

Meet the New Optimists - Newsweek
Generation 1, in this taxonomy, is the civil-rights generation—those (born before 1945) who participated in, or simply bore witness to, the defining 20th-century battle for racial equality. It is the generation of whites who, in large measure, saw blacks as alien beings and the generation of blacks who, for the most part, saw whites as irremediably prejudiced. Gen 2s (born between 1945 and 1969) were much less racially constrained—though they remained, in large measure, stuck in a tangle of racial stereotypes. Gen 3s (born between 1970 and 1995) saw race as less of a big deal. And that ability to see a person beyond color has cleared the way for a generation of Believers—blacks who fully accept that America means what it says when it promises to give them a shot. That new reality made itself clear when I compared black Gen 1 Harvard M.B.A.s with their Gen 3 counterparts.

Seventy-five percent of Gen 1s said blacks faced “a lot” of discrimination, compared with 49 percent of Gen 3s. Twenty-five percent of Gen 1s thought their educational attainments put them “on an equal professional footing with white peers or competitors with comparable educational credentials,” compared with 62 percent of Gen 3s. Ninety-three percent of Gen 1s saw a glass ceiling at their current workplaces, compared with 46 percent of Gen 3s.

“When competing professionally against white peers with comparable educational credentials, do you believe your race is a disadvantage?” Sixty-three percent of Gen 1s said yes, compared with 42 percent of Gen 3s. “Would you be as successful if you did not have a Harvard M.B.A.?” Ninety-four percent of Gen 1s said no, compared with 67 percent of Gen 3s. All Gen 1s surveyed said that they had been discriminated against in the workplace, and 60 percent thought that discrimination had had a significant impact on their careers. For Gen 3s, the numbers were 68 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

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