It’s easier to ignore, dislike, or hurt someone you don’t know than someone you do know.
-Bullies And the Three Monkeys by Peter W. Schroeder and Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand.
I’m writing a story that involves bullying. It’s got stuff I lived with as a kid. It’s got stuff I’ve read about on the news. It’s got stuff that I thought I was making up in my head – maybe too horrible to actually happen in real life…
Only it isn’t.
Bullying kills.
And it happens the most when we refuse to know each other.
When you label someone, you somehow remove their status as a human being. They become a thing.
A guy gets on the bus wearing a turban. Do you see a guy getting on the bus? Or do you see the turban and automatically start mentally throwing labels all over him?
What would happen if we got to know the person wearing the turban? What would happen if we smiled at, and talked to them instead of turning our eyes and burying our face in our phone?
Could we hate someone if we took the time to get to know them?
The chapter I pulled that quote from nailed a big truth: As long as we stay distant from those around us who are different, who we don’t understand, know, or trust, or who belong to a different social circle or social class, or religion than us….because everyone around us also remain distant for the same reasons…the easier it is for the unspeakable to happen to them…and no one do anything to stop it.
Holocaust.
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