— Internet Girls, Mad Men, and Why the ‘Greatest’ Generation Wasn’t
"When asked why he killed Till, J.W. Milam, a decorated World War II vet, a member of the “Greatest Generation,” said, “I just decided it was time a few people got put on notice. As long as I live and can do anything about it, niggers are gonna stay in their place.”…The Mad Men era is a lot less sexy for today’s people of color and other minorities than it is for white men. And what at least some people who say they miss post-war America seem to be forgetting is that a lot of America’s early prosperity was created using racism, sexism, and oppression of all kinds as building blocks. Factories used to be able to pump out product at unprecedented rates because they employed expendable children who worked to total exhaustion. Governments, both local and federal, were able to avoid long and costly discussions about equality because it was barely illegal to kill a black person with whom you disagreed. Gays didn’t speak out, because they, too, were in deep fear of being run out of town, at best, and murdered, at worst. An old straight white man saying he misses the days when things were simpler is tacitly saying that he misses the time when nobody could say or do anything but he and his golf buddies. And he’s right: Things move much more smoothly when you’re allowed to lock up or beat down whatever stands in your way. The real question is this: Is such simplicity “great”?"
