Last week, a kid at school was making fun of a friend of mine whose name is Nam. Nam is Asian—he is from Vietnam—and this other kid was being really mean to him. He was making fun of his accent and pointing out things about him that are different. Nam was getting a little angry, and this kid was like “What are you going to do? Use your Kung Fu on me?” It was really humiliating. I mean, we’re all different. We look different, and we do things in different ways…. Making fun of someone just because something about that person is different is NOT cool.
The worst part about it? I didn’t do anything. I just stood there and watched it happen. I guess I was just scared. I didn’t want to say something and then have that kid start picking on me, you know? Nam is one of my best friends—I should have done SOMETHING! I’ve been thinking a lot about that day lately. If someone was bullying me like that, I would want someone to help me out. If we just stand around and watch, the kid who is bullying will probably keep on doing it. I’ve decided that the next time I see a kid getting treated that way—even I don’t know the kid very well—I’m going to do something to stop it. I’m going to get a grown-up, I’m going to go stand by the kid being made fun of, maybe I will even be brave enough to tell the kids who is bullying that what they’re doing isn’t cool… SOMETHING!
