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so on the surface toys a kind of millennial that think pieces are made of. He's arrogant, self centered in convinced that he is smarter than people. Give him credit for. His favorite topics of conversation are girl's sneakers and cars, right? Not a surprise for someone who's a teenager just a few years ago. But Troy's mannerisms. They reveal the patterns of someone who was scared, troubled and ensure the future. Now Joy also embodies many positive qualities. His generation is known for an entrepreneurial spirit, an independent streak and a dedication to his parents. He believes in hard work and has tried gigs and both the listed and underground economies But he hasn't had any luck, and it's just trying to find his way and still dances between both worlds. When I met Troy a few years ago, he had been employed as a golf caddie at a local country club,

carrying bags for rich men and women who often never even acknowledged his existence. Before that, he sold sneakers on Facebook. He even tried selling candy bars and water bottles. But he wasn't making enough money to help its parents out or save up for a car anytime soon. So Troy saw how hard his immigrant mother from Jamaica work and how little she got back in return, and, he vowed, tried vow to take a different path. So we ended up selling drugs, and then he got caught. And right now he's trying to figure out his next steps. In a country where money equals power. Quick money, at least for a while, gives young men and women like him a sense of control over their lives,

though he said he mainly did it because he wanted stability. I wanted a good life, he told me. I got greedy and I got caught. Yet the amazing thing about Troy is that he still believes in the American dream. He still believes that with hard work, despite being arrested, that he can move on up now. I don't know if Troy's dreams came true. He disappeared from the program for trouble youth that he was involved in and slip through the cracks. But on that day that we spoke, I could tell. But more than anything more than anything, Troy was happy that someone listen to his dreams and asked him about his future. So I think about trying his optimism when I think in the reality that so many young, black millennials face when it comes to realizing their dreams.

I think about all the challenges that so many black millennials have to endure in a world that tells them they can be anything they want to be if they work hard but actually doesn't sit down to listen to their streams or hear stories about their struggle. And we really we really need to listen to this generation if we hope to have a healthy and civil society going forward because millennials of color they make a mate, they make up a fair chunk of the U s and the world population No. One. We talked about Millennials, a group that has often labeled is entitled, lazy, overeducated, noncommittal and narcissistic. The conversation's often swirl around avocado toast, overprice, Lattis and fancy Johnson Broad. You probably have heard all these things before, but Millennials Air, not a monolith actress Lena Dunham. Maybe the media's representation of this generation,

but Troy and other voices like his are also part of the story. In fact, millennials are the largest and most diverse adult population in this country. 44% of all American millennials are non white, but often you wouldn't even know it all. No. Sure, there are similarities within this population. Born between 1981 in 1996 perhaps many of us do love avocado, toast and lattis. I know I did right. But there are also extreme differences, often between millennials of color and white millennials. In fact, all too often it seems as though we're virtually living in different worlds now. Black millennials ahh group of a group that I have research for a book I recently wrote are the perfect example of the blind spot that we have when it comes to this group,

for example, we have lower rates of home ownership. We have higher student debt. We get tidied more voter registration booth. We are incarcerated at higher rates. We make less money. We have higher numbers of employment. Even when we do go to college, I should say, and we get married it lower rates. And honestly, that's really just the beginning. No, none of these struggles are particularly new, right? Young black people in America have been fighting,

really fighting hard to get their stories told for centuries after the Civil War and the 18 hundreds, Reconstruction failed to deliver the equality that the end of slavery should have, Harold it so young people moved to the North and the West to escape discriminatory Jim Crow policies. Then a segregation raged in much of the country. Young black people have spare head civil rights campaigns in the 19 fifties and 19 sixties. After that, some people embraced black power and then became black panthers. And then the next generation. They turned to hip hop to make sure their voices were heard, and then Barack Obama, hopeful that he, too, may bring about change. And when that failed, when we realized we were still brutalized and battered. We had to let the world know that our lives still matter.

Now as now, when technology allows more video of our pain and struggle to be broadcast to the world, we wonder like what is next? Our country feels more polarized than ever. Yet we're still being told to pull up our pants, be respectable, be less angry, smile more and work harder for even the mullen. Even the attitudes of millennials themselves are overdue for an update. Research done by The Washington Post in 2015 about this supposedly woke group found that 31% of white millennials think that that blacks are lazier than whites in 23% say they're not as intelligent, but the's air like surprising things to me and shocking. And these responses are not that much different than generations in the past. And it shows that unfortunately, this generation is repeating the same old stereotype types and tropes of the past. Now, a study conducted by David Binder Research and MTV in 2014 it found that 84% of young millennials were taught by their families that everyone should be equal.

This is a really great thing, a really positive stuff. But only 37% in that group actually talked about race with their families, so I could understand why things may be confusing to some. They're definitely black millennials who are succeeding marvels Black Panther, directed by black millennial Ryan Coogler and showcasing many others, broke all sorts of records. There's a crop of television shows by creative like Donald Glover, Lena Wave and Isa Ray Beyonce like Is the Queen right? She is like everything young black authors and winning awards. Serena Williams still dominating on the tennis courts despite all her haters. And there's a crop of new politicians and activists running for office. So don't kill these moments of black joy that I to revel in. But I want to make it clear that these winds are too few and far between for people that's been here for over 400 years, like that's insane, right?

And most people still don't really understand the full picture. Write our stories. Air still misunderstood, our bodies air still taken advantage of, and our voice is our voices, their silence in a world that still shows little concern for everyday struggles. So our stories need to be told in a multitude of ways, by a range of voices, talking about divers and nuanced topics. And they really need to be listened to. And it's not just here in America, right? It's all around the world. Millennials make up 27% of the world's population. That's around two billion people. And with countries like India,

China, Indonesia and Brazil, along with the United States accounting for 50% of the world's millennials, it's clear that the white, often male heterosexual narrow of the millennial is only telling half the story. Now there's many people trying to brought in the palate. They're fighting to get their stories told and bust the millennial stereotype, whether it's students in South Africa protesting statues, the sea. So Rose Michaela Cole making us laugh from the UK or Luce is a who is framing views about Nigerian life online, right? But I want to make it clear I want to make it really clear to everyone that just because things look more equal than they did in the 20th century doesn't mean that things were equitable at all. It doesn't mean experiences are hackable, and it certainly doesn't mean that a post racial society, that thing that we talked about so much ever became close to being a reality. I think of Joe Wow,

a middle class twentysomething who did everything the right way, but she couldn't go to her dream school because it was simply too expensive. Or Jo Lisa, who knows she can't be mediocre at her job the same wear her white the same way that her white peers can. Or Trina, who knows the people, judge her unconventional family choices in a different way than if she were a white woman or actor. A bee who knows that the roles he takes and gets in Hollywood are different because of his skin color. And then there's Simon, right? So Simon, by all means, would be an example of someone who's made it. He's a CFO at a tech company in San Francisco. He has a degree from M. I T.

And he's worked with some of the hottest tech companies in the world. But when I asked Simon when I asked Simon if he had achieved the American dream, it took him a while to respond. While acknowledging that he had a really comfortable life. He admitted that under different circumstances, he might have chosen a different path. Simon really loves photography, but that was never a real option for him. My parents were unable to subsidize me through that sort of thing, Simon said. Maybe that's something my Children could. D'oh. So it's these kind of stories, the quieter, more subtle ones. They reveal the often unique and untold stories of black millennials that show how even dreaming may differ between communities.

So we really need to listen and hear the stories of this generation. Now, more than ever is the baby boomers. Age and millennials come to prominence. We can talk all we want to about pickling business, pickling businesses and Bush in Brooklyn or avocado toast but leaving out the stories and the voices of black millennial large swathes of the population. It will only increase divisions, so stories of black, millennials, brown, millennials and all millennials of color really need to be told. And they also need to be listened to. We'd be a far better off country and world. Thank you

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