Remember the old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times"? It's proving especially prescient these days for older white guys (hereinafter referred to as OWGs).
As a card-carrying OWG, I can tell you I have never seen times like these, interesting or otherwise.
Everything is changing, in ways that are seismic and have left OWGs everywhere scrambling to cope. Of course, we've had to make adjustments before — allowing women to vote was pretty alarming, never mind that whole equal rights thing. But we just mixed ourselves another martini and soldiered on.
What's happening now is flat-out unprecedented. Suddenly women are in positions of actual influence that were once our exclusive domain. People of color are being courted for positions that usually went to us. Companies are making diversity a priority. I'm even hearing jokes about us. (How many OWGs does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to pour the drinks and the other to call the electrician!)
Nowhere is this cultural shift more prevalent than in my business, the theater. Roles I might normally have played are now being cast with people of color or women. Ditto with plays I might have been asked to direct or stage fights I might have been asked to choreograph.
No question, the game has changed. So as someone who has some skin in that game, I say this:
About time.
We OWGs have ruled the world for thousands of years and now it's someone else's turn. We've had a great run, but it's time to turn the reins (or reigns) over to younger people who don't look like us. Oh, we'll still be around — we won't completely vanish until women can teach horses to take the garbage out — but our sway over the world will never be (nor should it be) what it once was.
