Bullies Come II All Forms
We think that a bully is a bully if he hits us. We think that to qualify being a bully we have to beat someone up. We believe that a bully looks like a guy with the black at and the dark horse. We have an image of a bully that is scary and that looks nothing like the man in the Gap ad. We think a bully looks like OJ Simpson or Manson who ordered the murder of Sharon Tate and the baby inside of her. We see bullies in a way that has to look strange and off center. He has to be dark skinned like me or he has to have long dirty hair like Manson. She has to be a woman who killed her husband even if her husband insulted her day and night for five years, calling her a whore and other such ugly names.
I remember the fist time hearing that the MO of a serial killer was white and in his thirties. I remember because up to then I had been convinced that the bad guys were either Black or Latino like me. The only people who killed others seemed to be dark and I was convinced of it because it was the majority of people in jail. What I did not know was that there has been and continues to be a prejudice against dark people or color and that we are still being profiled to this day. All of it focused on ignorance.
Now that I have been the victim of a bully I am convinced that a bully can be the person that looks like they live in a Gap ad. It can be the person who is wearing the Banana Republic button down shirt and the tan pants. In fact that person is more likely to kill more than one person according to statistics. Yet we have been convinced by the media and people who are bigots that the bad folks of the world are the dark ones: like me. In this way some have managed to take the focus off of the truth and make up a story about people who happen to be of color.
Nothing has changed completely. We are still acting out and blaming and shaming people of color. We are still bullying people of color. We are still believing that the people who are the bullies are dark ones with dark hats on and masks over their faces. The media makes sure of that. The court system participates in it. The people of color in jail attest to that. The uneven judgements and convictions are a testament to it.
What is the point of my blog? The scary and intense fact is that people are still pointing their fingers at men of color in particular. The scary part is that your color and your ability to hire great counsel will determine what sentence you get. The scary part is that the guy in the Gap ad is the most likely to eliminate ten people and go into a rage and kill fifteen yuppies downtown. He is the person who goes into his boss's office and shoots him in the head out of anger be it that his boss may have humiliated him and bullied him as well.
The world will change when we stop blaming and shaming one dark group of people and when the Jim Crow laws in the closet are revealed. The world will be a better place when we admit that everyone is not treated equally and everyone is not looked upon with the same grace and forgiveness. When we see that dark does not mean bad.
I remember the fist time hearing that the MO of a serial killer was white and in his thirties. I remember because up to then I had been convinced that the bad guys were either Black or Latino like me. The only people who killed others seemed to be dark and I was convinced of it because it was the majority of people in jail. What I did not know was that there has been and continues to be a prejudice against dark people or color and that we are still being profiled to this day. All of it focused on ignorance.
Now that I have been the victim of a bully I am convinced that a bully can be the person that looks like they live in a Gap ad. It can be the person who is wearing the Banana Republic button down shirt and the tan pants. In fact that person is more likely to kill more than one person according to statistics. Yet we have been convinced by the media and people who are bigots that the bad folks of the world are the dark ones: like me. In this way some have managed to take the focus off of the truth and make up a story about people who happen to be of color.
Nothing has changed completely. We are still acting out and blaming and shaming people of color. We are still bullying people of color. We are still believing that the people who are the bullies are dark ones with dark hats on and masks over their faces. The media makes sure of that. The court system participates in it. The people of color in jail attest to that. The uneven judgements and convictions are a testament to it.
What is the point of my blog? The scary and intense fact is that people are still pointing their fingers at men of color in particular. The scary part is that your color and your ability to hire great counsel will determine what sentence you get. The scary part is that the guy in the Gap ad is the most likely to eliminate ten people and go into a rage and kill fifteen yuppies downtown. He is the person who goes into his boss's office and shoots him in the head out of anger be it that his boss may have humiliated him and bullied him as well.
The world will change when we stop blaming and shaming one dark group of people and when the Jim Crow laws in the closet are revealed. The world will be a better place when we admit that everyone is not treated equally and everyone is not looked upon with the same grace and forgiveness. When we see that dark does not mean bad.
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