The 90s & 2000's weren't that damn great

I have a bone to pick.

When people are nostalgic about the 90’s and 2000’s I don’t deny that they have genuine memories of good times. However, I noticed a lot of the conversation around the good ol’ days are just plain dishonest or people are not able to see beyond the rose colored glasses because of how rough times seem to be right now. The music was great, movies and television was fun, fashion was epic, the ads were colorful and bright but that’s pop culture we’re talking about. It’s very rare when people look back on the 90’s and 2000s they mention the social issues. Granted, I was a child and teen coming of age in a gritty, inner city and because of the oppression that existed around me I didn’t have the cushion of privilege to hide prevalent issues from me. All society’s problems were larger and accelerated a lot faster around me growing up. Nonetheless I remember and what I remember was the 90’s and 2000’s were not that damn great. Now, I’ll give you a few reasons why.

This list will be updated as more comes to mind.

The Anti-Sensitivity Culture

Did you guys know it was a crime to be sensitive twenty years ago? Well, it was. If you were a person in tune with your emotions, peeped problematic behavior and DARED to call it out you were damn near exiled. Being called a “crybaby” was the worst insult. Being tough and stoic in nature was celebrated. You was a gangsta, people respected you. In the 90’s and 2000’s, if you weren’t able to maintain a facade of emotionlessness you were looked down on. It was very much a thing. I believe whole heartedly this stomping out of sensitivity is what has lead to the lack of softness and empathy in our society now. The people who were victims of this anti-sensitivity era seen the apathy epidemic coming a million miles away.

Homophobia

Homophobia is still alive and well today but back then it was extremely unchecked and had all the room in the world to grow. Being called a “f@g” was normal as hell and being queer in any capacity that showed was grounds for getting beat the fck down. I remember overhearing stories of guys being jumped after school for being a little too feminine and I recall vividly a boy from one of my afterschool program coming in one day exhausted and completely disheveled because he’d been attack by his classmates for being into poetry. Yes, poetry. For men especially, hard masculinity was demanded and if you were a young boy who could not perform that role you would be dealt with. Homophobia wasn’t even a word for real, I mean it was but it was so okay to be publicly hateful towards queer people and go un-challenged for it the word wasn’t even needed.

The Secrecy of Sexual Assault

Words can not even begin to describe how much no one gave a hot fck about a woman being sexually assaulted. The MeToo culture we live in to day was something many SA victims could not even close their eyes and dream about then. Men were men and boys were boys which meant when the middle aged guys on my block stared me down in my school uniform and reached to touch my legs, no one did anything. I was fourteen years old when a adult co-star (I was a young theater actress) would make constant public moves on me. He was never held accountable in any capacity. Older adults would infact be standing right there watching it happen and nothing was said. Speaking out about about predators and r@pist the way we do now was rare. There was the occasional l person who would get loud with the neighborhood perv for bothering the young girls but it held no weight. He’d go right back to his routine tomorrow. That’s why I’m not shocked at all so many iconic public figures like Diddy are JUST NOW being exposed for incidents that happened decades ago . This is quite literally the only time line it would be possible. Before now, victims would just shut up and suffer. I know there’s people who hope times would go back but I sure as hell don’t. I am grateful that there’s this looming threat over predators that they can possibly be called out and lose their community. It’s so necessary. This type of culture that is long long long overdue and we actually still have a very long way to go.

Diet Culture and the Cult of Skinny

I know everyone thinks the latest clinical Ozempic beauty era we’re is hell and it is bad but still it’s nothing and I mean NOTHING in comparison to the rampant, insidious and ever-present diet culture of the 2000s. You could not turn on a television without seeing a low calorie snack commercial or promo for the newest episode of Biggest Loser or Extreme Makeover. All of the celebrities were white and skinny. We’re talking about peak Victoria Secret fashion show era. You’d be hard pressed to find an actual plus sized woman much less a plus sized black woman on screen outside of Monique, Missy Elliot and Queen Latifah who were truly outliers of the time (much needs to be said about how black women in media led the body positivity movement before it was a thing) Being a plus sized teen was absolute hell. I believed I was so fat and made so uncomfortable with my body it’s a time that has haunted me in adulthood. The cult of being skinny was so pervasive lots of Millennials still are trying to rid themselves of the brainwashing we received during our prime coming of age. The only thing worst than being called a crybaby and just as bad as being called f@g, was being called FAT. I’ve seen plenty brawls rage over just those three letters.

Black people were experiencing fascism and no one cared.

This goes way beyond the 90’s and 2000s, centuries back but this is the time I was present for. Black people were experiencing the boot of oppression and hyper-surveillance long before camera phones and the Tiktok app for people to talk about it. It was normal in our society because well, it was black people stuggling so who the fck cared? Growing up in NYC, the Stop & Frisk height of the 90’s and 2000s were disgusting. I was a child seeing the harassment of black people minding their business on the regular basis. God forbid, you just stood on the street for longer than a minute, whoop whoop! you’d hear those police sirens blared and they were automatically questioning everyone. Mass incarceration was so ridiculous black men were just disappearing in my community. As a child, I was told they just went on a trip but I always knew he truth still. They were in prison for serving long sentences for the same weed white boys today are getting rich and on television making brownies and meatball sandwiches for now. A lot of those men are still incarcerated despite the legalization of weed in New York State. There’s so many unsavory things black people had to do just to survive, put food on the table any television even the President himself at that time, Bush called us thugs. We were just poor, low down, stupid negroes from the the deep inner city who just couldn’t get it together. We were sabotaged by white supremacy every step in our survival but again no one cared. Racism requires you to be heartless and white people could sit in front of the tv news from the comfort of their privileged suburbia towns and judge us. Now, with inflation and a evil circus for a government everyone is feeling the extreme needs to survive. Everybody is feeling the extra struggle to put food on the table. Now everything is “dystopian” or fascist and I can not roll my eyes any harder. Who does it fascism have to finally have to effect for it to finally be called fascism? Please save the bullsht fear-mongering just because you woke up to the cruelty of our society yesterday. You’re late.

American Cluelessness about the Wide World

Americans are the least disillusioned by propaganda than we’ve ever been. Don’t get me wrong, propaganda still does is trick on us but when I think about Bush’s early 2000’s War on Terror post-9'/11 the hairs on my body stand up. I recall how many Americans believed completely abided and supported by the war in Iraq. Americans because became more patriotic, xenophobic and racist more than ever (There would be no Trump with this golden era of propaganda, believe it) I think about when I see videos of people of Israhell cheering for the bombs they hear fall on Palest!nians. I think long about that and wonder what the fck was the difference between them and us during Bush administration? Nothing. We was just as deluded and ignorant. The same goes for the Black History facts we listen to online and you’d see a sea of commenters say they had no idea this happened. They were never taught this in schools. People are only now noticing how clueless we’ve been about damn near everything. Americans are very America-centric. Yes, we do think the whole world is our country and that came with a deep, maniacal programming. Congratulations to the few Americans who WOKE up.

I even had to fake spell certain words to not get cause by any filters. This is how threatening it is for Americans to actually KNOW about life beyond the Western world and foreign vacationing.

I needed to get that off my chest. Yes, the 90’s and 2000s were fun in a lot of aspects but my god let’s not re-write history. It’s nostalgic in a lot of ways but for a lot of other ways it sucked. Many marginalized people are just now tasting a drop of relief from the weight they carried so many decades. I for one, do not wish to go back to that time for the societal social issues and my own personal issues. The time was what it was for what it was. We don’t have create a fantasy around an era to reflect on it. It’s okay to be honest. The 90’s & 2000s days weren’t all that good and there’s still so many other issues of that time that is still going unsaid.