June 24, 2025 • 19 mins
Generation X was raised to believe that military service, skilled trades, or a college degree would guarantee stability and success. But by the time we entered adulthood, the world had already changed—and no one gave us a new map.
In this episode of IN THE KNOW with Tony Reeves, I break down why Generation X wasn’t truly prepared for the shifting economic, cultural, and social landscape we inherited. From the decline of unions to the skyrocketing cost of education, we were navigating a world our parents never had to—and doing it in real time.
This isn’t about blame. It’s about recognition. And it’s about honoring the resilience of a generation that adapted anyway.
🎧 Tune in to explore:
Whether you’re Gen X or just curious about how one generation learned to pivot under pressure—this episode is for you.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/in-the-know-with-tony-reeves--5596987/support.
In this episode of IN THE KNOW with Tony Reeves, I break down why Generation X wasn’t truly prepared for the shifting economic, cultural, and social landscape we inherited. From the decline of unions to the skyrocketing cost of education, we were navigating a world our parents never had to—and doing it in real time.
This isn’t about blame. It’s about recognition. And it’s about honoring the resilience of a generation that adapted anyway.
🎧 Tune in to explore:
- The three “guaranteed” paths Gen X was raised to follow
- How rapid changes left us unsupported
- Why Gen X became the bridge generation
- What it really means to adapt when the rules change mid-game
Whether you’re Gen X or just curious about how one generation learned to pivot under pressure—this episode is for you.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/in-the-know-with-tony-reeves--5596987/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And in the good evening, everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
In the read Tony Reeves.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
When you read Tony, read by it following the news.
That's right shape or no sortage of things to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
What will theory?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This is a reality. We simply happen. Except let me
read bio, let me read, put the golihead and get started.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good day everyone, Good day, Good day, good day, good day.
I'm welcome, welcome, welcome, Welcome to another edition Within the
Know with Tony Reeves. I am Tony Reeves, and today
I want you to take full advantage of the fact
that we are here reflecting on life, law, legacy, and
living through transitions. Okay, now, I've been doing a lot
(00:50):
of talk lately about Generation X. Yes, I am the
older portion of Generation X. Generation X starts at nineteen
sixty five and of nineteen eighty. I was born in
sixty nine. You can do the math.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
But I want to talk about the fact that Generation
X wasn't really ready for change.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And that it's not a flaw.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So I want you to kind of follow along me
with as we're talking about here, Generation X wasn't ready
for change. Now they're gonna be people who hear that statement
and try to try to imply that I'm saying that
Generation X can't change, wasn't able to change, or Generation
X failed and changing. No, no, no, no, we just weren't
ready for change, and so it's important for you to
(01:33):
understand that we were trained for a world that was
actually disappearing. Now you're gonna say what, Listen, every generation
goes through some evolution of what the prior generation went through,
So there are gonna be opportunities and things that happens
with the subsequent generation that the prior generation.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Didn't relate to.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
But I'm gonna make the argument the Generation x's transition
to this world was extremely traumatic. So it's important for
you to understand what does that mean. And the reason
why I'm bringing this up is because I can tell
you that as a member of Generation X and coming up,
(02:15):
I realized early on my early twenties that the world
that I was moving into as I was getting ready
to move into the workforce in a professional manner, was
very different from my mom's world, in my grandparents world,
and that that world was not going to be my world,
and I had to be prepared for what that world
was going to look like with having no basis for
(02:35):
it whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So let's kind of take a step back here.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
You got to remember prior to and I'm not sure
where you are, and please share with me your feedback is.
I would love it because I've often told people that
when I was coming up, there were really three pathways
for success or it was considered traditional first military service.
Keep in mind, our generation literally came behind in generations
(03:03):
of at least three major conflicts World War two and
if you had your great grandparents, world War War, World
War one, World War two, Korean conflict in Vietnam, four
major engagements in the span of one particular period from
nineteen Basically from nineteen I think, I think World War
one was like the eleven. I may be wrong, so
please correct me and so forth. But basically the early
(03:25):
nineteen hundreds to nineteen seventy five, which is when I
think Vietnam ended. Why am I using the war as
a reference because from a military standpoint that for a
lot of people, that was the gateway into learning skills,
It was a gateway into stability. You could serve for
consider a period of time, and therefore there were all
(03:45):
these opportunities that you could find yourself taking advantage of
in the military, coupled with the fact that with so
many engagements, a lot of families had direct connections with
people who served in the military. So you had people
in your life life who served, and they could whether
they share with you their experiences or you witnessed them
(04:06):
in their experiences, you got an appreciation of what it
meant to be in the military service. So that's one trades.
Think about all the classes, and I can't tell you
what's today, but when I was coming up, you got
taught would work, you got taught home economics, you got
taught electrical skills, things of that nature. Those were an
(04:29):
integral part of our upbringing. So if you didn't want
to go the military route or the academic route and
so forth, you had a trade route built into your
school system. And remember now, and this is the thing
that I often people fail to realize. If you're a boomer,
excuse me, If you're a Generation X and your parents
(04:49):
are boomers, there's a very good chance that they came
up during the time where manufacturing jobs or jobs where
you worked at it, where you could be at a
job for twenty plus years. They could take care of
pay for your family your house, cars, raising your children, retirement,
vacation and everything like that. That was their world because
post World War two, the world wasn't shambles, so there
(05:12):
wasn't a lot of industrialized countries that weren't touched by
the war. We were touched, but it was Hawaii, of course,
But in terms of the global infrastructure epicenter, it was
basically us because we were the only ones, one of
the few places that went relatively untouched. So now what
happens is that you've got the post World War two era.
(05:35):
You've got school environments that are conditioning you to do trades.
You've got unions, which are becoming very prolific during the
times that reached their height if I remember correctly in
the mid seventies, that are improving the working condition for employees,
so they're getting better pay, better pensions, better vacation, better benefits.
All of these are the things that they have literally
busted their behinds for in terms of the union. So
(05:56):
you've got unions, nurturing school environments, plus the person post
World War two genre in terms of how the country
was operating from that particular point. Then you had college,
which was even even more so because especially as someone
who's black, we often conditioned that a gateway towards whether
(06:16):
it mean middle class or upper class, was your ability
to get a college degree. That it just wasn't just
for us. But think about it. So now what's happening
is that we're talking civil rights movement. We talked about
the Civil Rights Act, the Fairhousing Act, that Photo Rights Act,
all these acts that were designed in conjunction with Brownbee
Board and so forth to create opportunities for us to
(06:39):
go to school collectively as a group. That don't get
me wrong, there were plenty of historically black college and
universities that were educating, nurturing, and preparing our leaders accordingly.
But now you have an open access with very few restrictions,
even though there were still some problems, but you had
a greater access if you're black. But across the board culturally,
(07:01):
all the cultures were encouraged to go to college as
what I would call a pathway to the middle class
and nepper class. So here's the three things that we're
looking at. If your generation X by the time we
hit eight, by the time we hit like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
there are no more wars, There are no more conflicts,
(07:22):
All of the major legislation that had been fought for
is being put into place. We are now living in
ag and a desegregated society, and we are now looking
at our parents' generation and the pathways that they've laid
for themselves as an example for what we could be
and doing going forward. Then guess what happens All of
(07:44):
the things that supposedly was being put in place for us,
or at least we thought was, or more importantly, all
the things that we thought we could use as a
guide post for us going forward shifted. Think about the
military now looking at a situation where, yes, you have
quite a few people who have families in the military,
But think about it, The draft was an active thing
(08:06):
all the way up to the Vietnam So now what's
happening is we're now transitioning into this time period where
the draft is not being used. There are no open
conflicts to the degree that we've had in previous years
or previous generations, and you now have the choice. So, yes,
you're gonna still see people like people like me and
so forth who still view the military as a very
(08:26):
viable option for personal and personal and professional growth, but
more and more people are now looking at it from
a different light because they're now looking at service members
who are coming home with all these various problems, recognizing
that as a country, your body in the military is
at the pleasure of whoever is in charge, which means
(08:48):
you could easily be sent into harm's way. So all
of a sudden, military doesn't seem as much of an
attractive option as it had been in previous generations. The
other thing that you start to realize is that you're
starting to see a decline in the unions. Unions are
being viewed in a particular light where they're losing their
(09:09):
influence and their ability to impact. What we're also seeing
is a lot of those jobs that were prolific. Prolific
get hooked on findings that were in abundance post World
War Two, segueing and so forth, you're starting to see
them disappear. So now what you've got is a weakening
of the unions. You've got a situation where all the
jobs that used to be here are either either being
(09:32):
eliminated downside or even just transitioned overseas. So a lot
of the opportunities that was readily available to your parents
are not necessarily readily available to you if you don't
want to choose military or the college, right, right, and
let's not even talk about college now. Slowly but surely,
we're moving into the ranks where colleges are being financially inaccessible.
(09:54):
You figure. You know, for my parents' generation, my mom
probably could go for four years of college, probably for
four to five thousand dollars. Now, that might have been
a lot for a time period, but in relation to
where we were now. When I went to school, it
was about fifty nineteen thousand a year, if I remember correctly,
somewhere in that neighborhood. And so, and we're not even
(10:15):
talking about where we are now. So what's happening now
is you're finding yourself where kids are getting priced out
of college, and our generation is starting that. And so
now we're in this weird position where we're now looking
at our situation and we're saying to ourselves that we're
uncertain about whether or not making that investment in college,
(10:36):
or are we going to see that return in thement
of that investment, even though we're still conditioned to believe
from watching all the people around us and the different
examples that that still is one of the best gateways there.
But then you also had other things that popped up.
You started seeing the rise of the tech billionaires, the
people who started when the workplace started in college but
(10:57):
dropped out and were still able to be financially lucrative.
You started to see digital entrepreneurship. Remember we grew up
during the dot com booms, when the Internet came up,
and all of a sudden you had all these websites
popping up as means of generating revenue. And then we
started seeing the growth of the influencer economy. Remember, you know,
(11:17):
our generation was a part of the amazing racist Starting
Survivor Starting. You know, there was this running joke that
literally said the OJ trial was the beginning of the
reality TV reality TV boom.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So all of these things.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Are happening to us in real time, and we're seeing
this in ways that we just were not anticipating. So
what does that mean? Why am I throwing this out
here as a point, Because for us it became very real.
Boomers were retiring, all these changes that I'm talking about
(11:51):
didn't really hit them as hard. You figure, by the
time I got out of college, my mom was in
her forties. I would say, if I remember correctly, I
graduated when I I was twenty one of my mom's
twenty three years old. Twenty three years old, I mean
she was forty two, forty three. Mind you, she was
in the peak of her work years, but she was
as a teacher. She was any job that she was
going to end up being retiring from, so she was
(12:13):
kind of locked in. But we were just starting our careers,
as you know, as baby boomers were getting to that
particular point where they were starting to transition. They were
in the peak of their work years, heading into their
retirement years. And here's the thing. Change wasn't just cultural.
You know, we think about the change that we went through.
We talk about the fact that we were around our
(12:35):
generation as the first generation to truly benefit from a
post war society, from Roe v. Wade society, from a
desegregated society. All those changes came at the same time.
But also we saw economic changes, structural and global changes.
Remember our great grandparents and grandparents two were wars in
(12:56):
a very fifty in less than a fifty year time period,
and the and the world as a whole was just
now starting to get itself together, and we were here
to witness all that in real time. So, and I've
shared this in other podcasts and other content as well,
where I said the difficult things for our parents and
our grandparents is that they had worlds and not trying
(13:19):
to say it's harsh, but they could relate to their worlds.
They could all of them. If you're black and you
grew up nineteen hundred to nineteen sixty five, yeah, segregation
and Jim Crow and discrimination was the same across the board.
Access to various things was the same across the board.
Job opportunities, lower payment was the same across the board.
Now all those things are gone for allegedly for us,
(13:42):
but also the ability to have access to those types
of jobs are leaving the union, opportunities are now they
have now become stronger, are now becoming diminished our leaving.
So all of these things were new for us, and
so as a result, we were moving based on old
expectations while at the same time having to face new realities.
(14:03):
And this was not a knock on any of the
generations or any of the people who led us or
helped foster us. It was just the reality that we
were heading into a very different place and so as
a result, we had to learn how to be resilient, flexible,
and hustle despite the fact that we were not necessarily
(14:24):
ready for all these changes. But I want to make
sure I focus this one very important point. It's not
about blame. It's about recognition. Many Generation xers felt lost
or misled, not because they failed, but because the rules changed.
And again I cannot stress this enough. Remember, if you
(14:46):
think about it, from nineteen oh one to nineteen seventy five,
you've basically gone from you're basically talking, if you're trying
to if you're really being serious about it. You figure
at the beginning of the year of nineteen oh one,
you're only thirty five years removed from the Civil War,
not even a full fifty years, and then literally about
a decade in after the new you know, the New millennium,
(15:09):
you're now in this weird situation where or this or
you're turning into this new century, whatever the case may be,
this new century, and now all of a sudden, you've
got one World war, a depression, another World war, the
war is over, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, and then unrest
in terms of various protests across the boards now all
of a sudden, all you know, these were the worlds
(15:31):
that everybody had gotten used to deal with. You were
constantly this ebb and flow of conflict here, conflict there,
conflict here, conflict there. But now the dustest settles, and
now all of the work that the Silent generation, the
Greatest Generation, and the Baby Boomers did for our generation,
we now get a chance to put it in perspective.
(15:51):
But they couldn't prepare us for it because they didn't
know what it was going to look like. They had
no idea what this American experience was, or this world
experience was going to be in terms of desegregation, in
terms of greater opportunity, in terms of greater revenue, in
terms of they didn't know any of those things. So
all they could tell us was to do your best.
All they could tell us was, we got your back,
(16:13):
Just let us know what you need. We didn't know
what we needed because we didn't know what kind of
world we were heading into. So as a result, we
survived and we're still thriving, but we're having to learn
how to redefine success on our terms. Because remember, our
parents knew nothing about the dot com bo. They didn't
(16:33):
know anything about what it meant to be influencers. They
didn't know anything what about meant to have the Internet
or all these various tools or opportunities for financial growth
and success. None of these things were readily available to them.
So we had to learn trial by fire, which enabled
us to be able to give guidance to future generations
(16:54):
because while they are taking full advantage because they're not
living in the world where all these things of the NORM,
the influencers of the NORM, the branding opportunities of the norms,
the advertisement opportunities of NORM, podcast, YouTube, all these things
in their norms. The generation that actually had to go
through basically determinate if this was something that you could
make as a viable option Generation X and so. But
(17:17):
as a result, we had to learn on our own,
even though we weren't completely ready. But I want to
share this with you as I end today, and I
want to thanks a lot for you taking the time
to be with.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Me this evening.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Or this day, however a day you want to however
you however you want to break it down accordingly, I
just want to share with you this one last point.
Do you follow Did you follow one of those expected paths,
meaning did you follow to the college row, the military
route or even the trade school route and how did
that work out for you? Did you feel like you
were prepared? Did the world meet your expectations? And let
(17:57):
me just tell you if they did, I'd love to
hear about it, So please comment message share with me
your Generation X experience or if you got parents who
are Generation X who've said some things, shared with me
what they said as well, and as always, shared this episode.
If this helped out, or if there was anything I
said that you thought was great, I'm always town for
(18:18):
people who can let the world know what I'm doing.
Thank you again everybody for tuning in. Make sure you
subscribe follow to end the Know of Tony Reeves, and
I want you to make sure you remember one thing.
Stay strong, stay informed, and most importantly, stay in the know.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Event
And in the good evening, everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
In the read Tony Reeves.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
When you read Tony, read by it following the news.
That's right shape or no sortage of things to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
What will theory?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This is a reality. We simply happen. Except let me
read bio, let me read, put the golihead and get started.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good day everyone, Good day, Good day, good day, good day.
I'm welcome, welcome, welcome, Welcome to another edition Within the
Know with Tony Reeves. I am Tony Reeves, and today
I want you to take full advantage of the fact
that we are here reflecting on life, law, legacy, and
living through transitions. Okay, now, I've been doing a lot
(00:50):
of talk lately about Generation X. Yes, I am the
older portion of Generation X. Generation X starts at nineteen
sixty five and of nineteen eighty. I was born in
sixty nine. You can do the math.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
But I want to talk about the fact that Generation
X wasn't really ready for change.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And that it's not a flaw.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So I want you to kind of follow along me
with as we're talking about here, Generation X wasn't ready
for change. Now they're gonna be people who hear that statement
and try to try to imply that I'm saying that
Generation X can't change, wasn't able to change, or Generation
X failed and changing. No, no, no, no, we just weren't
ready for change, and so it's important for you to
(01:33):
understand that we were trained for a world that was
actually disappearing. Now you're gonna say what, Listen, every generation
goes through some evolution of what the prior generation went through,
So there are gonna be opportunities and things that happens
with the subsequent generation that the prior generation.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Didn't relate to.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
But I'm gonna make the argument the Generation x's transition
to this world was extremely traumatic. So it's important for
you to understand what does that mean. And the reason
why I'm bringing this up is because I can tell
you that as a member of Generation X and coming up,
(02:15):
I realized early on my early twenties that the world
that I was moving into as I was getting ready
to move into the workforce in a professional manner, was
very different from my mom's world, in my grandparents world,
and that that world was not going to be my world,
and I had to be prepared for what that world
was going to look like with having no basis for
(02:35):
it whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So let's kind of take a step back here.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
You got to remember prior to and I'm not sure
where you are, and please share with me your feedback is.
I would love it because I've often told people that
when I was coming up, there were really three pathways
for success or it was considered traditional first military service.
Keep in mind, our generation literally came behind in generations
(03:03):
of at least three major conflicts World War two and
if you had your great grandparents, world War War, World
War one, World War two, Korean conflict in Vietnam, four
major engagements in the span of one particular period from
nineteen Basically from nineteen I think, I think World War
one was like the eleven. I may be wrong, so
please correct me and so forth. But basically the early
(03:25):
nineteen hundreds to nineteen seventy five, which is when I
think Vietnam ended. Why am I using the war as
a reference because from a military standpoint that for a
lot of people, that was the gateway into learning skills,
It was a gateway into stability. You could serve for
consider a period of time, and therefore there were all
(03:45):
these opportunities that you could find yourself taking advantage of
in the military, coupled with the fact that with so
many engagements, a lot of families had direct connections with
people who served in the military. So you had people
in your life life who served, and they could whether
they share with you their experiences or you witnessed them
(04:06):
in their experiences, you got an appreciation of what it
meant to be in the military service. So that's one trades.
Think about all the classes, and I can't tell you
what's today, but when I was coming up, you got
taught would work, you got taught home economics, you got
taught electrical skills, things of that nature. Those were an
(04:29):
integral part of our upbringing. So if you didn't want
to go the military route or the academic route and
so forth, you had a trade route built into your
school system. And remember now, and this is the thing
that I often people fail to realize. If you're a boomer,
excuse me, If you're a Generation X and your parents
(04:49):
are boomers, there's a very good chance that they came
up during the time where manufacturing jobs or jobs where
you worked at it, where you could be at a
job for twenty plus years. They could take care of
pay for your family your house, cars, raising your children, retirement,
vacation and everything like that. That was their world because
post World War two, the world wasn't shambles, so there
(05:12):
wasn't a lot of industrialized countries that weren't touched by
the war. We were touched, but it was Hawaii, of course,
But in terms of the global infrastructure epicenter, it was
basically us because we were the only ones, one of
the few places that went relatively untouched. So now what
happens is that you've got the post World War two era.
(05:35):
You've got school environments that are conditioning you to do trades.
You've got unions, which are becoming very prolific during the
times that reached their height if I remember correctly in
the mid seventies, that are improving the working condition for employees,
so they're getting better pay, better pensions, better vacation, better benefits.
All of these are the things that they have literally
busted their behinds for in terms of the union. So
(05:56):
you've got unions, nurturing school environments, plus the person post
World War two genre in terms of how the country
was operating from that particular point. Then you had college,
which was even even more so because especially as someone
who's black, we often conditioned that a gateway towards whether
(06:16):
it mean middle class or upper class, was your ability
to get a college degree. That it just wasn't just
for us. But think about it. So now what's happening
is that we're talking civil rights movement. We talked about
the Civil Rights Act, the Fairhousing Act, that Photo Rights Act,
all these acts that were designed in conjunction with Brownbee
Board and so forth to create opportunities for us to
(06:39):
go to school collectively as a group. That don't get
me wrong, there were plenty of historically black college and
universities that were educating, nurturing, and preparing our leaders accordingly.
But now you have an open access with very few restrictions,
even though there were still some problems, but you had
a greater access if you're black. But across the board culturally,
(07:01):
all the cultures were encouraged to go to college as
what I would call a pathway to the middle class
and nepper class. So here's the three things that we're
looking at. If your generation X by the time we
hit eight, by the time we hit like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
there are no more wars, There are no more conflicts,
(07:22):
All of the major legislation that had been fought for
is being put into place. We are now living in
ag and a desegregated society, and we are now looking
at our parents' generation and the pathways that they've laid
for themselves as an example for what we could be
and doing going forward. Then guess what happens All of
(07:44):
the things that supposedly was being put in place for us,
or at least we thought was, or more importantly, all
the things that we thought we could use as a
guide post for us going forward shifted. Think about the
military now looking at a situation where, yes, you have
quite a few people who have families in the military,
But think about it, The draft was an active thing
(08:06):
all the way up to the Vietnam So now what's
happening is we're now transitioning into this time period where
the draft is not being used. There are no open
conflicts to the degree that we've had in previous years
or previous generations, and you now have the choice. So, yes,
you're gonna still see people like people like me and
so forth who still view the military as a very
(08:26):
viable option for personal and personal and professional growth, but
more and more people are now looking at it from
a different light because they're now looking at service members
who are coming home with all these various problems, recognizing
that as a country, your body in the military is
at the pleasure of whoever is in charge, which means
(08:48):
you could easily be sent into harm's way. So all
of a sudden, military doesn't seem as much of an
attractive option as it had been in previous generations. The
other thing that you start to realize is that you're
starting to see a decline in the unions. Unions are
being viewed in a particular light where they're losing their
(09:09):
influence and their ability to impact. What we're also seeing
is a lot of those jobs that were prolific. Prolific
get hooked on findings that were in abundance post World
War Two, segueing and so forth, you're starting to see
them disappear. So now what you've got is a weakening
of the unions. You've got a situation where all the
jobs that used to be here are either either being
(09:32):
eliminated downside or even just transitioned overseas. So a lot
of the opportunities that was readily available to your parents
are not necessarily readily available to you if you don't
want to choose military or the college, right, right, and
let's not even talk about college now. Slowly but surely,
we're moving into the ranks where colleges are being financially inaccessible.
(09:54):
You figure. You know, for my parents' generation, my mom
probably could go for four years of college, probably for
four to five thousand dollars. Now, that might have been
a lot for a time period, but in relation to
where we were now. When I went to school, it
was about fifty nineteen thousand a year, if I remember correctly,
somewhere in that neighborhood. And so, and we're not even
(10:15):
talking about where we are now. So what's happening now
is you're finding yourself where kids are getting priced out
of college, and our generation is starting that. And so
now we're in this weird position where we're now looking
at our situation and we're saying to ourselves that we're
uncertain about whether or not making that investment in college,
(10:36):
or are we going to see that return in thement
of that investment, even though we're still conditioned to believe
from watching all the people around us and the different
examples that that still is one of the best gateways there.
But then you also had other things that popped up.
You started seeing the rise of the tech billionaires, the
people who started when the workplace started in college but
(10:57):
dropped out and were still able to be financially lucrative.
You started to see digital entrepreneurship. Remember we grew up
during the dot com booms, when the Internet came up,
and all of a sudden you had all these websites
popping up as means of generating revenue. And then we
started seeing the growth of the influencer economy. Remember, you know,
(11:17):
our generation was a part of the amazing racist Starting
Survivor Starting. You know, there was this running joke that
literally said the OJ trial was the beginning of the
reality TV reality TV boom.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So all of these things.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Are happening to us in real time, and we're seeing
this in ways that we just were not anticipating. So
what does that mean? Why am I throwing this out
here as a point, Because for us it became very real.
Boomers were retiring, all these changes that I'm talking about
(11:51):
didn't really hit them as hard. You figure, by the
time I got out of college, my mom was in
her forties. I would say, if I remember correctly, I
graduated when I I was twenty one of my mom's
twenty three years old. Twenty three years old, I mean
she was forty two, forty three. Mind you, she was
in the peak of her work years, but she was
as a teacher. She was any job that she was
going to end up being retiring from, so she was
(12:13):
kind of locked in. But we were just starting our careers,
as you know, as baby boomers were getting to that
particular point where they were starting to transition. They were
in the peak of their work years, heading into their
retirement years. And here's the thing. Change wasn't just cultural.
You know, we think about the change that we went through.
We talk about the fact that we were around our
(12:35):
generation as the first generation to truly benefit from a
post war society, from Roe v. Wade society, from a
desegregated society. All those changes came at the same time.
But also we saw economic changes, structural and global changes.
Remember our great grandparents and grandparents two were wars in
(12:56):
a very fifty in less than a fifty year time period,
and the and the world as a whole was just
now starting to get itself together, and we were here
to witness all that in real time. So, and I've
shared this in other podcasts and other content as well,
where I said the difficult things for our parents and
our grandparents is that they had worlds and not trying
(13:19):
to say it's harsh, but they could relate to their worlds.
They could all of them. If you're black and you
grew up nineteen hundred to nineteen sixty five, yeah, segregation
and Jim Crow and discrimination was the same across the board.
Access to various things was the same across the board.
Job opportunities, lower payment was the same across the board.
Now all those things are gone for allegedly for us,
(13:42):
but also the ability to have access to those types
of jobs are leaving the union, opportunities are now they
have now become stronger, are now becoming diminished our leaving.
So all of these things were new for us, and
so as a result, we were moving based on old
expectations while at the same time having to face new realities.
(14:03):
And this was not a knock on any of the
generations or any of the people who led us or
helped foster us. It was just the reality that we
were heading into a very different place and so as
a result, we had to learn how to be resilient, flexible,
and hustle despite the fact that we were not necessarily
(14:24):
ready for all these changes. But I want to make
sure I focus this one very important point. It's not
about blame. It's about recognition. Many Generation xers felt lost
or misled, not because they failed, but because the rules changed.
And again I cannot stress this enough. Remember, if you
(14:46):
think about it, from nineteen oh one to nineteen seventy five,
you've basically gone from you're basically talking, if you're trying
to if you're really being serious about it. You figure
at the beginning of the year of nineteen oh one,
you're only thirty five years removed from the Civil War,
not even a full fifty years, and then literally about
a decade in after the new you know, the New millennium,
(15:09):
you're now in this weird situation where or this or
you're turning into this new century, whatever the case may be,
this new century, and now all of a sudden, you've
got one World war, a depression, another World war, the
war is over, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, and then unrest
in terms of various protests across the boards now all
of a sudden, all you know, these were the worlds
(15:31):
that everybody had gotten used to deal with. You were
constantly this ebb and flow of conflict here, conflict there,
conflict here, conflict there. But now the dustest settles, and
now all of the work that the Silent generation, the
Greatest Generation, and the Baby Boomers did for our generation,
we now get a chance to put it in perspective.
(15:51):
But they couldn't prepare us for it because they didn't
know what it was going to look like. They had
no idea what this American experience was, or this world
experience was going to be in terms of desegregation, in
terms of greater opportunity, in terms of greater revenue, in
terms of they didn't know any of those things. So
all they could tell us was to do your best.
All they could tell us was, we got your back,
(16:13):
Just let us know what you need. We didn't know
what we needed because we didn't know what kind of
world we were heading into. So as a result, we
survived and we're still thriving, but we're having to learn
how to redefine success on our terms. Because remember, our
parents knew nothing about the dot com bo. They didn't
(16:33):
know anything about what it meant to be influencers. They
didn't know anything what about meant to have the Internet
or all these various tools or opportunities for financial growth
and success. None of these things were readily available to them.
So we had to learn trial by fire, which enabled
us to be able to give guidance to future generations
(16:54):
because while they are taking full advantage because they're not
living in the world where all these things of the NORM,
the influencers of the NORM, the branding opportunities of the norms,
the advertisement opportunities of NORM, podcast, YouTube, all these things
in their norms. The generation that actually had to go
through basically determinate if this was something that you could
make as a viable option Generation X and so. But
(17:17):
as a result, we had to learn on our own,
even though we weren't completely ready. But I want to
share this with you as I end today, and I
want to thanks a lot for you taking the time
to be with.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Me this evening.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Or this day, however a day you want to however
you however you want to break it down accordingly, I
just want to share with you this one last point.
Do you follow Did you follow one of those expected paths,
meaning did you follow to the college row, the military
route or even the trade school route and how did
that work out for you? Did you feel like you
were prepared? Did the world meet your expectations? And let
(17:57):
me just tell you if they did, I'd love to
hear about it, So please comment message share with me
your Generation X experience or if you got parents who
are Generation X who've said some things, shared with me
what they said as well, and as always, shared this episode.
If this helped out, or if there was anything I
said that you thought was great, I'm always town for
(18:18):
people who can let the world know what I'm doing.
Thank you again everybody for tuning in. Make sure you
subscribe follow to end the Know of Tony Reeves, and
I want you to make sure you remember one thing.
Stay strong, stay informed, and most importantly, stay in the know.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
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