Rihja - Bullying

Growing up I saw a lot of people being bullied and I was bullied myself. Although my tormentors never physically bullied me the verbal bullying hurt just as bad. I remember when I was in the 5th grade, a boy in my class randomly started talking badly about Haitian people. "All Haitian people have AIDs and they look like sh**!"he muttered. As a Haitian American I was offended but I said nothing about it. Then he took things a step further by insulting me directly and my family. "Your mother is a w***e, etc." After he said that and a couple of other things I became enraged. I leaped out of my desk, grabbed him by his shirt and held a sharpened pencil to his throat. My entire class was surprised. They had never seen me like that, because I don't condone violence. After I stood up for myself he left me alone. Now that I think about my actions I see that I'm just as wrong as he is. I could of solved that situation a different way, but I can't change that past.

Although bullying isn't easy to deal with there are ways to help prevent and stop it. The best ways to do that is to collectively show bullies that they have no power over the people they try and torment. Lets say that in a school there's about 10 bullies and 200 other students, and a full staff. If those 200 students stand their ground, and those staff members take the appropriate steps to punish bullies, then eventually the "power" that bullies have over people will die out. Also it's the job of all parents to make sure that their kids aren't bullying people or being bullied. A lot of bullies learn to be violent or talk badly of others after seeing it from their parents. In my community a lot of the African American parents curse in front of their kids. They also fight in front of them and argue with other people. Growing up in an environment like that only continues the cycle. 

In all it is up to the community as a whole to end bullying. In our modern age bullying has become so serious that it's considered a crime.  If people would stop worrying about outer beauty, money, popularity, etc then we wouldn't have to worry about who's better than who. At the end of the day we're all people. Money and earthly items don't make us who we are. If we take a united stand against bullying we will end it.

Rihja