Have you ever been bullied because of your race or ethnic background?

Question

Have you ever been bullied because of your racial or ethnic background in school or work, or at least treated differently (in a negative way) because of it? If so, how have you coped? Does it impact the way you feel about yourself or change the way you see others? What's your story?

Answer 1

ive been treated negatively cuz im black

but ive never been bullied..probably because people assume when you black you always got a ratchet or sumthin and they scared

Answer 2

Um, yes. I was bullied/teased by Mexicans because of my Castillan Spanish accent, here in the US.

I guess, it kinda impacted me a bit, because I haven't taught my kids Spanish because of the same reason. They know a little bit but they don't want to speak it. I guess I feel they'll go through the same thing I did. My kids are half white and everybody even within my own family I get teased for not teaching them Spanish. I hate it hearing it from them. To be honest, all my nephews born in the US started speaking Spanish right out of the bottle and they all have problems with English grammar and their Spanish sound awful. Spanglish, eeck!

I wish I could tell my family to leave me the h**l alone. I will teach my children Spanish when is appropriate when they can master it, not to sound fake. Believe it or not, they know more languages than other interracial children do. Look at me, I've learned three other ones just a few years ago.

My children will learned the proper Spanish, the real mother tongue, not some slang-spanglish that will sound disrespectful. I really cannot stand when I hear little kids calling their grandma or their mother "TU" ugh!

Sorry to hear about your story.

Answer 3

Yes I've been harassed bullied spied upon when I go shopping (you know Indians are always stealing things)had a cross burned in my yard.

How do I cope?

I just do.

Answer 4

Like most people, I have been.

Answer 5

Im from Haiti. i came here when i was 7. and i guess i did use to be bullied some.

now ever since i got out from 7th grade i have changed this.

kids were always cool, but my brother and my dad use to give me my haircuts. i ddint have no good clothes, always tucked my shirt in. i mean things in hiati were differtn from here.

i went from one of the popular, smart, fun kids in my classes, to someone that people would say(go back to Africa, making stupid noises and saying that's what i spoke, i couldn't really defend myself-cause like everytime i spoke kids would imitate my accent, or if they hit me and all that bullshit. I mean i know that i didnt souund like that or was like that.

Most of those kids are black and call themselves african american and didnt even like th fact that they had african blood in their vains.

they think Africa is a country where all people speak buboo dudu fufu, and dance around in the trees. They think they were the omly black people that comes from a diffrent country besides africa. a whole bunch of people aren't eduucated or even care about themselves.

I was accused of a lot of stuff i did.

i live somewhere where there are only like 1000 haitians.

i mean being a foreign kid was rough

i had to endure much to get to where i am today.

it never changed the way i felt about myself.

I always said i was Haitian and was proud of it.

I didnt copy what some other kids were doin.

i mean i use to be stupid ever since i got to this country. i use to try to copy some americans too. I use to be ashamed to bring my parents to school cause i was scared someone would say something. Now i just feel like knocking someones teeth out if they say something aboout my people, my family and all that. i alsoUSEDTO BE ashamed had african ancestry too, becuase the way people think about africans, but i always said i was haitian.i use to do what some other kids told me to. i use to be made fun of and picked on. I aslo use to be so annoying. this country really changed the way i was in Haii.

But all of a sudden i just got smarter than that around like 8th grade. I knew who i was, what i beleive in, my ancestry. if someone ccursed at me or hit me, i wasn't just gonna look at them like it didnt botter me. i started getting more frieds

I started to realize who i am. i satrted to defend and fight for myself.

SO KNOW I GUESS IT DID KINDA IMPACT THE WAY I FELT ABOUT MYSELF, BUT I JUST CONTINUED, I NEVER MISS A DAY OF SCHOOL, I NEVER LET WHAT PEOPLE SAID OR DID BOTHER ME. I HAD ALWAYS SAID I WAS HAITIAN AND WILL NEVER REJECT WHO IAM.

my brother and sister had some problemms like that too, but i guess mines was worse.

My brother came here when he was 12. he's 19 and barely got an accent in english. My sister came here at 10, and ahs'es always inon the phine and going to hang out with her friends. as a matter of act she graduated with honors last year, and went to college today(alll by herself-dricing a van)

my brother's cool with everybody, he's always playing basketball.

now i guess you can say it's my turn.

we're all proud to be haitians and who we are. We know that our country has many problems but we'll always remeber where we come from and will always accept and love that.

in the 8th grade i started getting smart, getting staright a's. lat year i didnt do that but i my averages where a's and b's.(mostly a's.) I started to research a lot about my country.

i speak haitian creole but i wanna learn more and how to write it too. I forgot a lot of expressions, buut i rememer them as soon as i hear them. I aslo speak like half french, wanna lnow more as well. i wanna visit Hiati for a while  to remember more of the language

i'm gonna join sports team, men of distinction and other school programs.

Answer 6

Yes, I'm Asian and people made fun of me. "CHING CHONG CHING CHONG!" I was harassed with racial comments about how weird Asians were, how slanty their eyes were, asking dumb questions if I knew karate or if I was born here. I almost got in a fight and I have a scar on my hip from a dumb boy in elementary school.

Asahmed to say but it made me not want to be Asian...but I'm proud to be one now...I'm not ashamed. How I view others? Some people are just plain STUPID or IGNORANT and need to get out more than just stay in their own little worlds.

Answer 7

My Life is a interesting story. I haved lived in affluent suburbs my whole life and they are mostly white. In my elementary school there were only 3 black kids Me and my bro being 2 of them. BUT i was never made fun of in Elem. school. Sometimes when we studied the Civil War and learned about slaves  they would sneak glances to see ,i guess, my reaction but i never showed reaction.

Then Junior high came . because my parents r foreigners( haitians) i look different and speak different. i speak french and creole. my english was very proper, so other black ppl made fun of me. That hurts more than any person of another race being rascist. black girls would say my dad must jave cheated with a white women cuz my hair was longer and straight. And i got made fun of by other blacks because i had all Honors classes, and for some reason it wasnt cool to be smart.

Some times i felt like i didnt belong anywhere. i had some white friends that would say i actually wasnt black because my parents are from haiti. I never understood that reasoning, i think some of them ,especially some guys, thought i was there little exotic toy. i had many black friends but the immature ones would make comments about my ethnic background and my hair

In High school that was the first time i heard the N Word used to my face. I grew up with most kids and was close to  a lot of in my high school most ppl liked me i played tennis was on the dance team. had a very cute white basketball playing BF. then i was in the hall way  one day and i bumped into a girl who i grew up with and she called me a N*****. there was a counselor right there he just LOOKED at me. so i punched her. ha that was the first and only time i got in a fight. all i got was a detention because i told the truth and me and my bro were well known and won spelling bees and other competitions for our district. .

And  now that I am in college  I am respected for being smart and being a black women. I tutor in macroeconomics calculus and business law. but when i go out every once in a while sales ppl or other ppl will treat me with that attitude and calculated meanness that usually stems from rascism and YOU KNOW WHAT it doesnt bother that much becasue.  guess what we are born imperfect and until that can somehow be changed i know i will experience hardships for being tall. for being pretty, for being black, for having long hair, someone will always find something to point out to make themselves look and feel superior

Answer 8

when I was younger I was bullied a lot by white students (mainly boys) because of he fact that I'm black (and a girl on top of that). There was times when I was younger that I wished my skin was lighter so that they would stop calling me "Darky" or "Spook". They would sometimes cut the lights off in the class room when the teach stepped out and pretend like they couldn't see me. So they would throw things across the room in my direction and hit me with it. Trust me when I say I had plenty of fights after school. I called one of two words "N!gg*R" or "Black B!t#h". (which is why I refuse to use the N word at all as an adult).

The older I became, the more I understood how ignorance plays a big roll in a person choosing to use racial slurs and epithets to describe or relate to someone of color. I started to understand that some people are raised in an environment that breeds this brand of hate, as a way of dealing with their own insecurities, fears, misunderstandings, and misconceptions. The older I grew; with proper interaction around positive people, I was able to distinguish between the ignorant and the educated; and from that point on, I was able to make a choice. A choice to deal with those who's views of me as a person based more on the content of my character, and not the color of my skin. I was able to make the choice to ignore the ones who see people with tunnel vision, and pray they one day see the light.

I later in life understood that there are bad apples in every bunch (Black, White, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Middle Easter) but I have the choice to either pick from those rotten, bruised, and misused apples; or I can pick the ones who've blossomed and shine through the love they have for all. By me making the choice to ignore the unedcated, my life has become one day closer to being heaven on earth.  

Answer 9

Well I'm Mexican and 17 years old.

when i came to the united states when i was 8 i didn't know how to speak english and i had to go to school (3rd.grade). I couldn't make many friends for the the fact that i didn't know english. when i went to 4th i knew really little english but had made some Friends.

one of my friends invited me to her house which was a street away from mine. we were playing around and her grandma came in and started yelling at me and kicked me out. the next day my friends apologized and said she couldn't play with me anymore and that she's sorry bc her grandma doesn't like spicks.

i was confused back then and it never affected me in a huge dramatic way. im proud of my culture and where i came from.