Hurting

Challenging or contradicting the opinions of others is not an easy task. Some people decide to remain silent through the outburst of racist or sexist comments made by people who don't have a good moral judgment. A lot of times, a person is exposed to a situation where someone is saying something they disagree with, and instead of causing a scene and starting a discussion, with fear that it will escalade due to the differences of their opinions, they choose silence. When I was younger, I remember being put in a situation like this. My best friend at the time happened to be African America, and we were inseparable, she was like my sister. One day some kids from our school said something racist to her, making it seem like being African American meant the same thing to being poor. I remember she didn’t say anything and she continued to walk.
I was very upset because I did not know kids were that mean. After time went by I heard one of the kids who said those mean things say his parents said African Americans were bad and that he shouldn’t talk to them. I understand now that the history of this kid was not a good one when it came down to racism. His parents were setting an example for him to follow and it so happened to be a bad one. Since he didn’t know better, he didn’t feel the sting in his words as much as my friend did. People who aren’t exposed to this type of hate speech don’t know what its like, so when they talk they don’t feel like they are doing anything wrong making the other person feel less. The problem with this is that people are hurting innocent individuals without even noticing the mental damage they are causing.
This is were common sense should kick in for people. All we have to hope for is that people start to begin to place themselves in situations like this to be able to understand and know not to make rude comments. If people are not reminded to do so they might not ever take the initiative which is why I believe this should be talked to at school. Hate speech can be very hurtful specially for young kids who are beginning the process of forming their personalities and individualism. This could affect them for the rest of their lives, but what can school do if their parents are not enforcing these beliefs and actions? I believe schools should be very open with parents about this topic so that they can both come up with a solutions that works best for both.
Ignorance can play a big role in this to. When someone knows it’s bad and they continue to do it to be mean and hurtful they become ignorant and show they are uneducated. Nobody wants to be viewed this way so it’s best if we are open about this subject so people will stop doing it.