Prevailing stereotypes about America’s youth, and particularly about young African Americans, are often wildly off base, either because they were never true, or because they have failed to keep up with the reality of generational change. Below is a selection of social indicators showing ways in which today’s younger generation exhibits substantially more positive behaviors than did Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers at the same age, with young African Americans often leading the trend toward cleaner living and greater personal responsibility.

Source: Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Phil joined the staff of the Washington Monthly in 2012. He is also the policy director at the Open Markets Institute and a lecturer at Johns Hopkins, where he teaches health care policy.

In addition to writing many feature articles for the  Monthly,  Phil’s work has appeared in such publications as  The Atlantic Monthly, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, The New Republic, The New Statesman, The New York Times Magazine, Politica Exterior, Der Spiegel, and World Politics Review. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, and was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University.

Phil is on X @LongmanPhil.