It seems that many people, like me, have found this subject the same mine field that I have. Maybe I’m brave or just plain nuts or naive but I somehow hoped these posts on interracial bullying would generate some sort of discussion but it wasn’t to be. Like slavery was for the US Congress in the first 50 years or so the US Constitution was in force, people don’t like to talk about issues dealing with race and like to keep the whole thing locked in some closet somewhere. The whole subject causes great anxiety, especially among white people. I think the main fear is saying the wrong thing and upsetting someone, which is understandable.
Again, maybe it was naive of me but I expected someone to offer some opinion on my last post to explain why it happened to me. Since no explanation came forward I will have to attempt to figure it out for myself and I think I have. I have come to the conclusion that the bullying I suffered at the hands of African Americans was most likely not racially motivated. It was simply just plain bullying and I shouldn’t have seen race in the picture. That also explains why I was the target of said bullying and not the mountain boy in the Klu Klux Klan. I am sure the reason why they never picked on that guy was because he never presented himself as a target. In fact, he was quite the bully himself. He was a large guy and because of that, he thought he could get through life by simply kicking everybody’s ass and even though that attitude sometimes landed him on the wrong end of military discipline, he didn’t change his attitude. I may have been wrong to see this sort of bullying as racially motivated when I have no proof it was. However, this doesn’t justify the bullying. Nothing justifies bullying and bullying in any form is just plain wrong.
Going off on a side road here, I would like to speak about my allegory of the sandbox. As a supply (substitute) teacher, I have worked at nurseries and pre school play groups on many occasions and I have witnessed the same phenomena each time. Children under three of different races and ethnic groups all playing nicely together. There was no animosity of any kind. The only incident I witnessed was two girls nearly coming to full fisticuffs over a spoon. It has been said that children that young don’t see colour and if that’s true, then it’s a good thing. To me, it proves my belief that racism is learned.
Next post: Race- The Numbers Game
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