Velez: When millennials are 'woke'

IT SEEMS easy to blame the millennials for their lack of involvement and awareness and forever stuck on gadgets.

My critique on the millennials in my previous column generated lots of shares, thoughts and comments about this. So I’m sharing some of these here.

We may see millennial apathy because we have seen past generations of youth who have sacrificed for the country, such as the First Quarter Stormers in the late 60s to Martial Law who defied the dictatorship by going underground, marching on the streets, living with poor in strike camps and farms.

Even my generation, the so-called "Martial Law babies" born and raised in the 70s to early 80s, have our first taste of censorship when Voltes V was pulled out from TV, the first taste of fear when Alsa Masa vigilantes roamed the streets, and the first exposure to activism in college to forums and rallies questioning democracy and development in post-EDSA I.

But millennials are making their mark. As one netizen pointed out, the millennials showed up in huge numbers in rallies against the Marcos' burial at the Libingan last year and the Martial Law protest last September against killings and tyranny. Their creative slogans were honestly more attention-grabbing than the activists’ slogans. In an interview, a couple of rallyists confessed they were part of the 16 million who voted for the president that has now perpetrated a state of kill they feel responsible too.

The millennials also showed their commitment to support the Save Lumad Schools campaign. Every year the MindaLakbayan of Mindanao Lumad events have gathered more support and engagement from students in Manila. Remarkably, there are a couple of UP Diliman graduates who even volunteered to become Lumad school teachers in Mindanao.

Millennials are woke, as they like to call their awareness and involvement. But how do we keep this going?

Two of my alumni friends in CEGP offer some points. One of them, a cultural worker for film, said we have to look at the conditions that shaped this millennial culture. He said we should realize the post-EDSA culture where neoliberalism here and abroad places importance on the "me" instead of the "we." And the technology boom shaped and pushed this millennial tendency.

Another friend, who is now a labor organizer abroad, said the millennials cover a spectrum, on one side are the elite kids with a sense of entitlement, but on the other side are young people who feel the crunch in surviving this neoliberal rat-race. He said this latter group of youth has made their mark with the Occupy movement and joining the democrat socialist movement championed by Bernie Sanders.

Indeed, what is needed to make our country move forward is engagement and involvement. What we aim is to flush out the negatives and bring out the positives on the millennials who are the future. After all, it’s better to treat the causes of apathy rather than bashing them outright.

We can’t brush off this generation yet until it makes its big splash. History will judge them, as it once judged us in our youthful years. I hope when that time comes, their skills, talents, woke minds and dedication can shine for all.

For after all, the future belongs to the youth. We have to work hard as well to make that road wider and better.

(tyvelez@gmail.com)

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