Shaquille Blackstock
           Staff Writer

Back in the 50s’ and 60s’, due to minimum wage rising every so often to combat the inevitability of inflation, young people were able to finish high school, work hard in one of the many manufacturing jobs that were around back then and attain their dreams of a house and a white picket fence, no problem.

This generation is called the Baby Boomers. They are probably the parents or grandparents that millennials know and love.

However, in the 2010’s, a new generation of workers, innovators, artists and hopeful young people that are pushing through college, have dealt with an exponential increase in costs, exponential even since the 80s’, when some tuition costs per semester ran around $2,000.

Many of this new millennial generation have been internet pioneers, so to speak, so The Carolinian sat down to ask millennials a few questions about what they miss about their glory days, the 90s’.

    Jane Hughes, a sophomore at UNCG, who was born in 1996, said, “Our cartoons weren’t nearly as mature in nature as the ones that come out now. I mean, you know, “Ren and Stimpy,” “Beevis and Butthead” and other shows like “Rocko’s Modern Life,” had covert adult jokes, but I always felt that was put in just for the enjoyment of the parents, otherwise, they’d be watching “Barney” and “Caillou,” dying of boredom.”

Hughes continued that, “The other thing about things these days, that used to not be [the norm] is just the general decaying vibe of society. When I go out with my boyfriend, the vibe that I get from the world is completely different. I almost don’t feel safe outside of my vicinity, especially at night. The world seems to have veiled itself in pessimism.

“I don’t remember my childhood being that way. The world seemed safe. The cereal tasted different, there were more businesses. Even the music videos now are so oversexualized that I know it must cause harm to peoples’ psyche.

“Sex used to be more demure when it was sold. Now it’s just all out there. This was before the 9/11 attacks, and then everything just seemed to change. Our parents, because [they were] nervous and anxious about sending us to school, but we did it anyway. The 90s’ was groundbreaking, it basically gave birth to what the 2000’s would be, and so, in a way, the 90’s influenced today. However, I feel like we have a long way to go before we reach that full potential that this country used to aim to have. It seems trust is gone amongst so many factions of society: there’s little trust in the justice system, little trust in the politicians and very little hope of attaining that American Dream that people seem to rave on and on about,” said Hughes.

Esteban Kelcourse, a music producer who visits Greensboro often, and a fellow millennial, focused on visual aspects of the change in times.

“The music from the 90’s seemed genuine. You had NWA, who expressed anger at the effects and ramifications of the war on drugs, which led to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown men, signed by Bush in 1994. Tupac’s music could be uplifting and revolutionary, but it did turn violent because that’s how you have to be in the streets. However, now hip hop and trap repeat the same motifs, and few well known rappers out there besides Kendrick Lamar want to bring that old sound; that genuine consciousness, instead of just talking about getting it in with strippers, and how much money that they have.

“The 90’s were different because people cared a bit more than they do now. Between the political polarization that is happening within the two party system, as well as the economic downturn in 2009 — which still affects people to this very day — the 90s’ were just a better time. We were happy then. Not because we were just children, but because the same degree of malice that people have between each other, coupled with wars that never end, the memories are the only way that we can escape this world for a little while and sink into those long gone moments of joy,” said Kelcourse.