Bullying In American Culture

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The act of bullying or harassing another is interpreted as the habitual nature of a person with unkind intentions leading to impulsive cruelty to those “who are weaker” (merriam-webster definition of bullying). Inside the melting pot that is American culture we see a thick mixture of identities including race, minorities, genders, religions, health, wealth, poverty, and even education. All of these factors essentially influence each of us into the becoming of who we are in our individual futures, and, continuously change our thought processes which contain the ideas we have today. In this enlightened era of, for example, lenient gender roles, the culture has vastly shifted. If we think back to when races and genders were predominantly separate …show more content…
There is a heavy political influence among the youth of america, which in turn of this recent election, could possibly change everything that teachers and parents work ten times harder to teach children. Parents and adults also equally influence teens and children, and even to a socially unacceptable level. In an article on Donald Trump 's affect on a middle school, author Edwin Rios reported that a particular student named Josie Ramon had felt the full aftershock of the election. Rios reports that “10 days after Trump was elected, the Southern Poverty Law Center tallied 867 election-related instances of harassment and intimidation, 183 of which were reported to have taken place at K-12 schools. And a follow-up survey of more than 10,000 educators found that reports of such harassment had "skyrocketed" since the last survey and that 80 percent of respondents described a heightened anxiety among minority students in the weeks following the election” (Rios). Josie Ramon, a middle school student of Royal Oaks in the outskirts of Detroit, tells about her experience post-election, “Josie, who is Mexican American, was in the cafeteria for lunch when a group of students started chanting, ‘Build a wall! Build a wall! Build a wall!’. With tears in her eyes, Josie pulled out her phone and hit record. ‘I was a bit angry at the people who were doing this, because it was hurtful. . . I was …show more content…
I have personally experienced one named SPIDEE (Students Promoting Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in Education), which is a student led group and was developed by NCCJ (The National Conference for Community and Justice of greater dayton) initially for Yellow Springs educational institutions. It is a good educational opportunity that my high school has featured for several years in which high school students can teach elementary level students about SPIDEE through an abundance of learning activities, games, and movies. One of the primary activities that SPIDEE does is watch a movie called “Eye Of The Storm” featuring Jane Elliot. The short film is based on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. passed away. This event affected Miss Elliot greatly and so she decided to teach her class about discrimination using the color of their eyes. The classroom was divided, although every student got to feel what discrimination felt like. The activity remains very powerful and iconic to this day, although many still disagree with

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