Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future

by Jean M. Twenge

beginning in 2016, White liberals—particularly Millennials and Gen Z’ers—began to say that their feelings were warmer toward Blacks than toward Whites, a reversal of a result found since the 1970s. By 2020, Millennial and Gen Z White liberals rated their feelings toward Blacks 16 degrees warmer than their feelings toward their own racial group (shown by the positive numbers in Figure 5.64). As for Black Americans (not shown), their feelings stayed about the same toward their own racial group and cooled somewhat toward Whites, moving from a comfortable 75 degrees in 2008 to a chillier (though still temperate) 62 degrees in 2020. Thus White liberals felt warmer toward Blacks, but Blacks felt cooler toward Whites.