[quote name='Strell']I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the same.
I'm really
ing tired of the older generation of Americans being so shocked when these things happen. Maybe it's my younger age and growing up in the wake of Columbine and the like, but at this point, while I am still thrown back when something like this happens, I sure as hell don't react like seemingly anyone over the age of 40.
To them, school is still in that idyllic Wonder Years/Happy Days sort of
ing fantasy, where the cool guy wears a leather jacket and drives a motorcycle, the nerdy kids stick to themselves, and every other
ing retarded cliched archetype of these so-called developmental years.
I guess it's just my own anger lashing out at this sort of thing - being that I didn't exactly have a good time in school after 5th grade, when all this sort of bullshit begins - but I can't
ing stand it that no one seems to give a shit about bullying.
Is it ever going to stop? No, but don't
ing tell me it's not capable of pushing people over the edge. It's like everyone wants to pretend there's nothing wrong with their All-American star quarterback, even though he's being a total douche bucket to tons of kids ALL THE
ING TIME.
Also goes to show that Americans are still really
ing petty and on their high horse on how great of a nation we are. We are a great nation, but we are full of
ing assholes (myself included). I have to agree with RvB here - if I'm ever teaching a class of some kind (which I might do in my future, given my English degree), and I hear the slightest thing along those lines, the
er is out of my class immediately.
My college student-run-paper interviewed some Asian students once in one of their columns, and they too talked about hearing "chinaman" jokes all the
time. Makes me
ing sick.
I don't even like it when I'm dealing with clients at work, and when they find out I'm down in Texas, they try to cozy up with a lot of slurs against Mexicans. Just so damn
infuriating.[/quote]
I'm in full agreement.
I think what happens is after people leave school and get older, they forget that world. Even I can't always tune in to those old feelings, the peer pressure, the self-consciousness, the hurt/anger towards bullies, whatever we experienced. I didn't graduate high school that long ago either - 2001. But I think the more removed you are, the more the feelings fade away. College was leagues better than high school.
But when you're in it, and you're getting bullied or see others getting bullied, or not being in the cool group, and just trying to fit in and get through the day, it's incredibly powerful. And the ones that get singled out, whether being picked on or completely ignored, have it worst of all. These are the Cho's, the Columbine boys.
Just recalling back to around 1999. I was a sophmore and that was the year anyone who was gay starting coming out. Before that (even in the media), there weren't a lot of openly gay people. The first guy who came out was assaulted nearly EVERY day by the football players for most of the year. I am not exagerating, as he was a friend at the time. The school did nothing, some loophole with the harassment policy or something. More and more people starting coming out though. They were assaulted as well, but after a year it started to fizzle out and it happened less and less. But for that time those kids lives were miserable. Fortunately they had good support systems in place, and were able to get through it.