Bullying Because of a Disability
People criticize others based on their weaknesses, and if someone has a disability they have different disadvantages than others that people can make fun of. I can personally connect to this, as I have severe allergies to seven foods. This has given me disadvantages in my daily life such as not being able to buy food from the cafeteria or go to most restaurants. I cannot share food with my friends or go out for ice cream with them.
Although I haven't had much personal experience related to food allergies and bullying, the article discusses how children with disabilities are bullied more often than others. One part of the article that stood out to me was that "We know that being bullied contributes to social inequalities later in life - people who were victims in childhood often grow up to have low self-esteem, anxiety and depression, and perform less well in the labor market than their peers." If someone has low self-esteem or anxiety, don't criticize them. Instead, realize that they might have had disadvantages in life. Maybe they have a disability you don't know about, or maybe they have been bullied. Either way, they could not have controlled the experience or the problems they received as a result, and it is unfair to criticize these problems. |