The new millennium has not cured us of ageism. It is “a persistent form of bigotry and prejudice” in many sectors of society, and even among older people themselves.

This, at least, is the view expressed in the current edition of Generations, a highly respected professional journal.  

After deciding to write about this prejudice, however, I encountered a problem. Ageism is not something that I have experienced myself. Looking back from age 77, I cannot cite a single example of bias aimed at me on the basis of age.

In fact, during recent bouts of illness, I found that members of the health care system treated me with great respect. Doctors, nurses, and others in the care network showed themselves remarkably solicitous of my well-being, and not at all inclined to be patronizing.

Also continual contact with college students and others not even a third my age has reinforced my feelings of worth.  Consistently, I find them polite and respectful of me as an older person. Though I welcome them calling me by my first name, I am often addressed as “sir” by my juniors with whom I have casual contact.

Perhaps this immunity from ageism comes from my social status. Being white, not economically impoverished, and connected with many friends may carry exemptions. If you benefit from fortunate circumstances, maybe you can escape the biases that some other people face.

On the other hand, the very idea of widespread prejudice against aged people, simply because they are aged, may have outlived its usefulness. At least that is what James Callahan suggests as an idea worth considering. Callahan formerly served as Secretary of Elder Affairs in Massachusetts and taught at Brandeis University until his retirement.

In a recent conversation, he questioned whether some professionals have a vested interest in maintaining the idea of widespread age discrimination. This question he asked, not in an accusatory spirit, but for the sake of reexamining the issue. Can it be that charges of ageism have their uses for those engaged in the field of aging?

Many agencies are responding well to the needs of older people. “Now that aging is seen as ubiquitous,” Callahan said, “businesses and other organizations are focusing on older people as a group to be served.” For money-making enterprises, old people are increasingly seen as customers like everyone else.

As with so many other issues, I find myself torn. Yes, professionals in the field of gerontology may exaggerate the presence of ageism in American society. They tend to see things through the prism of the hardships faced by older people in general. Thus the magazine mentioned earlier can easily recruit 16 experts to write on various phases of the supposed epidemic of age bias.

But there is certainly evidence that being old and poor can have tragic consequences. In the Hurricane Katrina disaster, older people ─ particularly women ─ suffered more than did others in the population. Altogether too often, they were left to shift for themselves against the forces released by broken levees and wind and rain.

This happened because they were poor, and because transport and planning were inadequate. But their chances would have been far better if they had been young and vigorous.

In the case of elder abuse, poverty is also sometimes a factor ─ but not always. At all economic levels, caregivers and family members can (consciously or not) look upon their elders as not worthy of respect. Such an attitude can prove deadly for an older person made dependent by illness or disability.

But the question of age bias remains very complex, according to another of my gurus in the field of aging, Robert Weiss, a sociologist retired from the UMass Boston faculty. “It depends an enormous amount on context,” he tells me.

In the world of work, for instance, “it’s tough to get a job in your 50s,” says this student of workplace issues. Despite some changes of attitude, industries are still reluctant to hire people middle-aged and older.

In other sectors, how older people are treated depends on their social standing. “It’s not a matter of discrimination against the aged,” says Weiss, “as that some are seen as belonging to a lower caste.” Like what happens in so many other spheres, status is what counts.

On a lighter note, some of my age peers have complained about the way they are treated at cocktail parties. “They just look right through you,” I remember a woman telling me. So long as you do not seem prestigious, you receive scant attention.

Perhaps the best authority on ageism is the man who invented the term in 1969, Robert Butler. Dr. Butler believes that “there has been some reduction in personal ageist attitudes.” However, he also finds that American society has a very long way to go toward eliminating the prejudices leveled against people on the basis of age.

Richard Griffin