Two speakers confront bullying and the bystander effect. Speaker A refuses to let mockery define them and challenges people to speak directly. Speaker B admits to ignoring a classroom incident where a larger student repeatedly ridiculed a quiet girl while the teacher stayed silent.
When you look at me, what do you see? You must see a monster. You must see a psychotic person. Whatever you see, that's not who I really am. You laugh at me, you taunt me, you call me names, names that will haunt me for the rest of my high school life. Why? That's the question. Why? Is it the way I talk, the way I move? What is it? I'm tired. Tired of being the laughingstock of the class. I'm tired of saying one thing and you feel you have to say something to make me look stupid. And the funny thing is, when you're alone, you say hi to me, but when you're with your friends, you laugh at me. Well, guess what? I don't need you. What you say might affect me, but I'm not going to let it affect my life. I mean, you're sure not going to be in it 10 years from now, so why should I care now? Because you see, what you think is weird, Somebody else in the world thinks it's cool. And what you think is ugly, somebody else in the world thinks it's the most beautiful thing. I'm not worried about your thoughts or your opinions. I'm focused on my future, my goals, and my life. But if you have time to talk about me behind my back, then at least take time out to acknowledge me face to face. Thank you. So now, I'll ask you again. When you look at me, what do you see?
I see a person. We always tend to ignore ugly things in life. We just put up the blinders and look the other way. Sometimes bullying is staring us straight in the face, but we just pass it by. I'm pretty normal, I guess. I mean, I don't bully people and I don't get bullied. I rarely see it happening at my school, but I think that's because I'm unaware. I have the blinders up. There was a time a few weeks back when this big girl was behaving so rude and ignorant and mean to this other quiet, small, awkward girl. The quiet girl raised her hand in answer to a teacher's question, and the big girl made fun of how Stupid her answer was and how funny her voice sounded. We all laughed and the teacher just ignored it. You could tell the girl was upset, but we just ignored it and the teacher did nothing. This continued to happen for a few weeks. Every time that quiet girl raised her hand to answer to a question or pretty much anything. I soon started to think, this girl is getting bullied. She doesn't like it and she's in a helpless situation. No one in the class is on her side. We just laugh and turn away and the teacher doesn't do anything. We all witness bullying. But we do nothing. I mean, I didn't do anything. Does that make me wrong? My brain tells me to ignore it, but my gut tells me to do something. We all witness bullying, but we just pass it by. Pass it by. Pass it by. Pass it by.
