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Lorena Moulton
Mrs. Hood-Esparza
Bigotry Is Bullying
Did you know, that there is no federal anti-bullying law? That means that bullying will
most likely stay under the radar and go unnoticed. Bullying can escalate and turn into
harassment. Plus, harassment is under the federal civil rights laws enforced by the United States
Department of Education along with the United States Department of Justice. On November 8th,
2016, the United States of America got their forty-fifth president. President Trump is known for
his television days, buildings and his ideas how America should be. He uses social media
(twitter) as the main outlet to show his opinions and suppress minorities. These actions have
been criticized and have portrayed Trump as a bully. Days after the election, a survey was sent to
50,000+ people in the age range of thirteen to eighteen. The survey was about bullying and
harassment, 70% of the youth saw a surge in Bias-motivated incidents. When there is a bias,
there may be a Bigot thought. Bigotry is prejudice of a person because of who they are or/and
their opinions clashing against yours. Bullying is like bigotry, however, bigotry is typically an ad
hominem attack. Bigotry needs to be addressed because it is causing teenagers to question their
self-value, isolate themselves, and is contributing to suicide rates in the United States of
America.
Those who are targets of bigotry feel guilt which can lead to questioning of their
self-value. Imagine yourself walking into your favorite store and looking through the aisles and
have found a childhood friend that speaks a different language from English (you do too). The
conversation with your friend was great but someone had overheard your conversation. They
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looked at you with abhorrence on their face as you look away from the person in confusion. The
person started to stomp madly towards you while yelling racist terms and distasteful stuff about
the people of your classification. How do you feel? Scheff wrote that "Peer cruelty is painful for
anyone at any age. When it is heaped atop other difficulties, it can be soul crushing". Peer cruelty
does not always need to be physical it can be emotional by pushing them towards stress that
hurts their brain and could affect their social needs along with their basic needs. The social needs
are status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. The basic human needs are food, water,
and shelter. Keepyourchildsafe wrote, "It can take the form of ignoring someone, openly
excluding or isolating a child, rallying other students to dislike a child, or giving someone a cold
shoulder and the silent treatment; but in every form, exclusion is a type of social rejection".
Social rejection impacts us more than we think, it impacts our health and the way we reason.
Teenagers, for example, do things that are "wrong" despite knowing it is wrong. But why do they
do it? It may be their social status in the group. If they do not "follow the leader" they are looked
down upon and get rejected if not pressured. This will make them lose the certainty that they had
of where they belong and how they treat others. They become depressed and closed off making
people think they are just being a "typical teenager". The truth is that their adolescent brain is
Bigotry can cause people to feel uncertain and ostracized. The ones who are excluded are
not alone because people in their society also feel the same way. The ADL wrote, "Hate and bias
crimes affect entire communities, not just members of the targeted group. Fear and humiliation
may not be felt by the victim alone, but by the victim’s community as well. As a result,
community spirit may be diminished and overall tensions may increase". As read, it is not simply
the individual being isolated but their entire community as well. When a bias crime has been
committed people who relate to the victim feel as they were the victim themselves. The ADL
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also says, "Because the basis for the attack is the victims’ identity, victims may feel a deeper
trauma or reaction to the crime. They may feel powerless to control whether or not the crime
happens again because their vulnerability is based on an aspect of their identity". This makes the
community lose trust in other people and become fearful of them. When bigotry happens, it
Bigots goals are to make their victims feel uncertain and feel like there is no other
conclusion but suicide. There are many cases of young people who grow up in a society that
dislikes their identity, so they commit suicide to get rid of their problems. For example, Mike
McHargue wrote, "As someone who endured truly awful bullying growing up, I understand the
temptation to escape the pain via suicide. I tried to take my own life years ago". Mike McHargue
was one of the fortunate individuals who knew suicide wasn't the answer but most people are not
as fortunate. An example of bigotry targets are the people who associate themselves with the
LGBTQ+ community. Emily Band says, "Young LGBT people face a higher rate of self-harm
and suicide than their heterosexual peers...a study by the Brighton & Hove LGBT Suicide
Prevention Working Party shows that people in this group who are under 40 are three times as
likely to have considered suicide as a similar heterosexual group, and more likely to turn to
substance abuse". Based on this information, we read that LGBTQ+ people would hurt or kill
themselves more likely than people who are straight. People who are targets of bigotry will most
Some people believe that awareness of bullying and bigotry exists already. There is awareness
but most people do not take it to heart. Kelsey Young, an ADL advocate, was a member of the
Gay-Straight-Alliance while in high school. During this time she organized a day of silence for the club.
She said in an interview, "I thought it was so cool and so lovely that everyone treated me nicely and asked
me any questions. The very next day I found out that the queer members of the GSA were being shoved
down stairs and pushed into lockers". The students who "supported" the day of silence went back to bad
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habits. The mask they showed fooled some and hurt others. In an ADL article, it shows that there are
only sixteen "States (including D.C.) with comprehensive hate crime laws that cover: race, religion,
ethnicity/ national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability". That shows that
there is some progress on anti-bigotry in the United States but we do have thirty-four states to go. There is
always room to grow with awareness of bigotry as well with more social issues.
In the United States, bigotry is a social issue that is causing youth to weaken their self-worth, feel
rejected, and lose themselves to suicide. As you have read, bigotry must be addressed to create a better
world. Next time you witness or felt targeted contact an organization like the ADL. To contact the ADL
Works Cited
www.keepyourchildsafe.org/bullying/peer-isolation-peer-exclusion.html.
www.adl.org/education/resources/backgrounders/disability-rights-movement.
www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html.
www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html.
Clark, Joey. “The Most Pervasive Bigotry Isn't What You Think | Joey Clark.” FEE, Foundation for
fee.org/articles/the-most-pervasive-bigotry-isnt-what-you-think/.
Daum, Meghan. “Why Blaming Leelah Alcorn's Parents Only Compounds the Bigotry.” Los Angeles
www.latimes.com/nation/la-oe-daum-alcorn-transparent-suicide-20150115-column-column.html.
Holt, Melissa. “Bullying and Suicide: What's the Connection?” The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2018,
theconversation.com/bullying-and-suicide-whats-the-connection-82353.
Holt, Melissa. “Understanding the Link between Bullying and Suicide.” The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2018,
theconversation.com/understanding-the-link-between-bullying-and-suicide-39037.
“Survey of 50,000 Youth Reveals Post-Election Spike in Bullying.” Human Rights Campaign,
www.hrc.org/blog/new-survey-of-50000-young-people-reveals-troubling-post-election-spike-in-b.
www.adl.org/education/resources/tools-and-strategies/talking-to-young-children-about-prejudice.
www.adl.org/blog/words-matter-standing-up-to-bigoted-language.