One of the more telling aspects of last year’s presidential race was how Generation X, those born roughly between 1962-ish and 1982, voted in large numbers to help MAGA Republican Donald Trump, a member of the post World War II “Baby Boom” generation at age 79, defeat Kamala Harris, 61, a fellow X’er.
As a Generation X’er myself (born in 1972), I found this exit polling data absolutely fascinating due to Trump’s apocalyptic vision of the United States that runs contrary to almost all of the political and social lessons that our generation learned as children growing up in the 1970’s and 80’s—and as college students and young members of the workforce in the 1990’s and early 21st Century.
As is often mentioned, Generation X came into being during the last days of Jim Crow, which means that ours was the first generation in American history where on paper, race was supposed to no longer be an impediment to full legal and political rights in our country.
Indeed, “on paper,” our generation was the first to:
*Attend integrated primary and secondary schools...
*Play on the same youth and school sports teams...
*Sit in the same sections at movie theaters watching blockbusters like Star Wars, Superman, Rocky, and the Indiana Jones trilogy...
*Declaring “I want my MTV” while watching as “video killed the radio star” in real time...
*Watching the Iran Hostage crisis, Beirut Marine Barracks terror attack, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, and the fall of the Berlin Wall—and listening to political leaders discuss and debate these issues in real time...
*Serving in (or observing) the Gulf War in 1991, and noting that the two leading military leaders were General Colin Powell, a Black man, and General Norman Schwarzkopf, a white man, both working in unison to exorcize the ghosts of the Vietnam War...
Powell and Schwarzkopf circa ‘91
While these were but a few events in Generation X history, ours, unlike previous ones, got to see people work, live, and play together from different races, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. Thus, those of us with common sense realized that in ages past, Black and Brown people, as well as white women, didn’t lack talent or skills to compete, but they simply lacked access in a country founded by white men who were determined to keep white males as the heads of government and industry in perpetuity!
Logic would seem to suggest that because Generation X’ers grew up in a society in which opportunities were not automatically closed due to certain demographic markers, a society in which during our still young adulthood, the very first Black “First Family,” the Obamas, emerged on the world scene, that surely few of us would be so cynical as to believe Donald Trump’s openly and virulently racist rhetoric that “The Blacks,” Hispanics, and Muslims, due to DEI and immigration, are the actual culprits behind the high costs of food, gas, rent, mortgage, insurance, and electricity bills in the United States?
Sadly, in November of 2024, 54 percent of Generation X’ers proved that, yes, they were that cynical by voting for Trump, a petty and vindictive man who through the first nine months of his second term, has done absolutely nothing to lower costs of living due to inflation, but has done everything to inflame the culture conflicts that have folks openly discussing subjects like secession and civil war for the first time in decades.
To state the obvious, allow me to remind that 54 percent isn’t “all,” as it’s clear that 46 percent of Generation X’ers voted for someone other than Donald Trump. If you are in that 46 percent, my next few comments are not directed at you!
But to the 54 percent of Generation X’ers who did vote for Trump, your actions didn’t surprise me because unlike some folks, I’ve ALWAYS known who you were, what you were about, and to answer today’s initial question, “did they hate us all along,” YES, your miserable asses did—albeit silently, cowardly, and in the shadows until Trump came along and said aloud what you couldn’t because it wasn’t socially acceptable.
Generation X’ers of your ilk sat in your living room watching and laughing at Archie Bunker with your parents, and listening to your close relatives echo his vile bigotry at the dinner table.
Generation X’ers of your ilk sat in church pews each week and looked at stain glass and children’s Bible pictures of a Jesus Christ with blonde hair and blue eyes, while your pastors injected you with a false sense that God’s “chosen people” were white, and God’s “chosen country” was the United States of America.
Generation X’ers of your ilk sat in classrooms and saw first hand that your sense of intellectual superiority was shattered by more than a few little Black, Brown, and Asian children who read better, found the “main idea” quicker, scored higher on math and science tests, and dominated academic competitions like spelling bees, quiz bowls, as well as science fairs or math and read-a-thons.
Generation X’ers of your ilk grew envious when your false sense of racial superiority didn’t help you earn a spot on the football or basketball teams that were dominated by talented racial minorities, or sit first chair in band sections dominated by folks that Archie Bunker, your families, and your preachers had you believing were “lesser.”
Generation X’ers of your ilk grew insanely jealous when you didn’t get accepted into the state or private college of your choice at the end of high school, so you blamed the ten percent or fewer racial minorities that were accepted into those entering freshman classes as the cause of your failures instead of realizing that you were academically mediocre—or below average—and not entitled to that class roster spot! My closest Black and Brown friends still remember how some of you “assumed” that we “didn't earn” our spots in law school, medical school, and graduate school, or our job opportunities post school days, simply because Archie Bunker, your families, and your preachers had you believing that we were “lesser.”
Some Generation X MAGA members went from listening to Cyndi Lauper’s “She's So Unusual” in the 1980’s, to supporting an unusually nihilistic President in Donald Trump…
So I get you, I really do, and I remember some of the envious looks, the jealousies, the petty hatreds that you tried to mask when we were kids and young adults—masks that you slowly removed each time a Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or finally, Donald Trump, reminded that you were “special” and if right wing Republicanism could ever control all three branches of government, that you would reap the benefits just as soon as “they” could put “them,” with “them” being folks like me and my racial and ideological kinsmen, “in our places.”
Sadly, it was all a lie, but as you get older and grayer, you aren’t getting wiser, you’re simply getting used and abused by Trump and his cronies who have played on your bigotry to further enrich themselves, while you, your aging parents, your kids, and your grandkids struggle mightily to make ends meet.
Lest you forget...
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A really good read. As a Black Gen Xer I think many of my Black peers were optimistic and hopeful about the future. We demonstrated that we were at least as capable as our white counterparts and in many cases were even smarter. The resentment was apparent even back then. It’s not universal of course, but much can be gleaned from the divergent feelings about the future that my young self had vs some of my white counterparts. To my mind it’s why “resentment” is a core aspect of what we see happening today.
This should become a classic! Admirable and insightful.
A really good read. As a Black Gen Xer I think many of my Black peers were optimistic and hopeful about the future. We demonstrated that we were at least as capable as our white counterparts and in many cases were even smarter. The resentment was apparent even back then. It’s not universal of course, but much can be gleaned from the divergent feelings about the future that my young self had vs some of my white counterparts. To my mind it’s why “resentment” is a core aspect of what we see happening today.