Boomer, which is a slang term for the baby boomer generation, has become a controversial word as of late. Millennials have been using the phrase “OK, boomer” whenever someone from the generation criticizes them online, shutting down arguments and frustrating the older generation.
And while it’s meant to be funny, “boomers” aren’t really taking it that way.
Radio host Bob Lonsberry compared the phrase to a racial slur, saying it’s the new n-word.
“Being hip and flip does not make bigotry ok, nor is a derisive epithet acceptable because it is new,” Lonsberry wrote in a since deleted tweet.
Lonsberry, who hosts a conservative radio show on WHAM radio and WSYR radio, deleted the tweet after backlash and hasn’t discussed the statement since.
Just because something is insulting, it doesn't make it the N-word sporto.
Nobody died connected to it. Nobody was enslaved or segregated in conjunction with it. Just stop.
You want the pain of the word, just none of the lynchings, disenfranchisement and hatred.
Hush.
— Mr. Mo'Kelly 🎙️ (@MrMokelly) November 4, 2019
Comparing boomer to a racial slur is peak boomer, boomer pic.twitter.com/wFjhUsbCKp
— the bad Katie (@KatieKatCubs) November 4, 2019
Bob Lonsberry, the boomer who says that "Ok boomer" is the "n-word of ageism" sold a line of clothes called "FUBO" standing for "Fuck U Barack Obama."
Ok boomer. pic.twitter.com/TpaoZfepbO
— Mike “MattinglysSideburns” Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) November 4, 2019
That you're fine with it, as long as it doesn't target you? pic.twitter.com/b5MAPrAXiH
— Daniel Smith (@DannyAdelante) November 4, 2019
You can’t kill it once it’s been on the internet @BobLonsberry . We youngins figured that out, maybe you should too. But if you can write “boomer” but write “the n-word” because you can’t say the n word, then honey, they aren’t the same. pic.twitter.com/yrMft4OMRR
— Aeryn (@Gallows_Witch) November 5, 2019
Dictionary.com weighed in, saying, “Boomer is an informal noun referring to a person born during a baby boom, especially one born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1965,” the digital dictionary tweeted. “The n-word is one of the most offensive words in the English language.”
Boomer is an informal noun referring to a person born during a baby boom, especially one born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1965.
The n-word is one of the most offensive words in the English language. https://t.co/30OAf7N83e
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) November 4, 2019