all public school anti-bullying activism is extremely transparent and meaningless
faculty: BULLYING IS BAD!! ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY!! THIS IS A HATE FREE ZONE!!
me: hey this person called me a stupid dyke today
faculty: hmm thatâs unfortunate. have you tried perhaps, not being gay?
I feel like everyone is against bullying until they actually look at the kids who are being bullied.
The cheesy anti-bullying tapes that they show in schools feature these skinny straight white neurotypical kids who get picked on for no reason. Usually the insults are something along the lines of âYouâre a loser!â or âGet lost, freak.â All the kids watching immediately feel bad for the victim, and think âAw! She didnât deserve that!âÂ
Then, ten minutes later, they go pick on some marginalized kid without thinking twice. As an autistic person, I was often this kid. The insults I heard growing up were not âYouâre a loser!â or âGet lost, freak.â They were âDonât let the retard work with usâ or âShouldnât she be going to the special school?â
The problem is we teach kids that bullying occurs for no other reason other than just to be mean. This could not be further from the truth. Bullying occurs because as a society, we condition kids into hating fat, black, neurodivergent, queer, and disabled people. Kids donât bully each other just to be mean. They do it because if somethingâs âwrongâ with the person, itâs completely justified.
But of course, we canât tell kids this kind of stuff. We canât say, âHey! Making fun of your gay classmate is bad!â
Because when we do, suddenly the phone calls come pouring in, each with a parent on the other end screaming âYou canât be feeding my son that liberal propaganda!âÂ



















