We as human beings have long since fought for individuality. The struggle to carve a little piece of uniqueness in the indistinguishable world is real. Out of that fight has emerged a place where most people can celebrate their differences openly and be accepted for them.
But, what if that was a bad thing?
Millennials are changing the way people parent their children. These are parents born between 1980 and 2000. They are highly adaptable and tech-savvy people that try to give their children the chance to be unique and independent while giving them a relaxed routine instead of the more rigid regime of the 1990's.
Parent Co. Magazine reports, "In a generation more ethnically diverse than any other, millennial parents are honing a distinctive parenting style that is defined precisely by its heterogeneity and open-mindedness aimed to cultivate kids’ unique external and internal identity and self-expression."
Most Millennials raise their kids to believe that it is okay to be different. In fact most parents nowadays encourage their kids to break away from the masses and explore their own path. Although this idea seems great on the surface, the damage of concentrating too heavily on our differences is starting to take its toll on society.
Activist groups like Black Lives Matter (for example) open up the conversation of racism against African Americans, but do little else to help their cause. With the acceptation of the select earnest movement leaders, the group has done more to self-segregate and endorse discrimination against ethnicities other than their own. By pointing out how they are different, they have set themselves a part from the rest of society despite their cries to be treated the same as everyone else.
Instead of concentrating on how we are different from each other, it is time to consider how we are the same. It is possible to recognize our similarities without sacrificing any of our individuality. Being overly sensitive and fearing things that are deemed "different" is no way to teach the next generation.
Children learn from their surroundings, even when their caregivers don't think they're looking. It is clear that the current way society is thinking is not working. Bullying is running rampant in schools all across the country. There is a global crisis of hate crimes, terrorism, shootings and vandalisms.
We need to reinforce the idea that we are all the same. Although appearances, culture, language, abilities, religion and other factors may set people a part from each other, deep down we are all the same. Every human being on earth is the same. Instead of lumping people into groups that they may, or may not feel like they belong in, let's teach our children that we are all one group.
We are all the same in that we are different. We are all that same in that we are unique. We are all the same in that we are all beautiful in our own individual and wonderful way.
After all, if we are all the same then when we attack each other it will be easier to see that we are actually attacking ourselves.
