How about tormenting someone because of a disability? How would you feel about that?
bullyinginstitute.org
b.) Men targets were more likely(& showed a statistically significant greater likelihood) than women targets to be recipients of the following tactics:
Tormented because of disability, 26% of men vs. 18% of women
Threatened with physical harm, 21% vs. 12%
Name calling in the workplace:
men 48% vs.women 35%
I think people who think namecalling is ok, because they got through it, are part of the overall problem. That's like a successful hazing candidate saying hazing is "ok" because he got through unscathed. Just because someone makes it through a traumatic experience, does not make inflicting the experience ok. People survive beatings, and bullying, but I hope most reasonable people agree these are not things society should view with equanimity. Opprobrium should attach to bad behavior, at the very least- that's not a first amendment issue- I'm not saying we shut up adult bigoted name callers by using the power of the state, I think that's too repressive (although at school, in a learning environment, I think we have to). I am however ok with keeping the burning of crosses on lawns, and the desecration of religious places, as hate crimes. I think there is a huge difference between spoken hate and verbalized hate- although they clearly feed in to each other, and are both dangerous. |
