I really do think people forget that about Black X'ers - that some of us forget it ourselves - that we were the FIRST generation fully out of segregation. Our parents and grandparents pushed us to take advantage of every opportunity they didn't have and every ease they didn't get

But it's also why our fall back answer about doing certain things is about generational obligation; because we grew up hearing first hand stories about the struggle. I realize that doesn't connect the same way with younger gens.

We were also the first generation of a real Black middle class - even as we were the generation contending with the crack era.

We were that whole ass "hope and dream."
Add being a generation of only children and divorced parents - we had the opportunity of choice and individualism and freedom and that for many of our fams was a first. I can't tell you how many of my friends were first gen college.

Anyway, I think we forget who Black Gen X was in context, next to our Boomer parents and our Silent Gen grandparents. Life changed so rapidly for Black people between the '70s and the end of the '90s, they're easy details to lose.

Me: We were the first generation of a *real* Black middle class...

People who don't read: The Black middle class existed!

I know, y'all. That's why I phrased it how I did. The Black middle class expanded in the 60s because of the CRM.

Going to college was genuinely not spoken of as an option in my house, even as my mom pushed me to find scholarship and grant money, it wasn't "or you won't go." It was "or you gotta rethink your choices." In my case, some of my greatgrands had degrees...
https://twitter.com/nodaysoff85/status/1318192347394572288?s=21 https://twitter.com/nodaysoff85/status/1318192347394572288

... It wasn't until early high school I came to the realization that wasn't a normal thing. Graduating seniors were being asked about if they were going to school, my green ass was like "Wait, what do you do if you don't go to school?"