How to be an ally for diversity? How to be graceful and charming and helpful? That's my prayer nowdays. I want to be the embodiment of grace, charm and an ally to those in vulnerable positions.
Bullying can take many forms. In grade school someone might call someone else a derogatory name. That is name calling. Another way to bully is to make fun of people for the choices they make or the choices their parents made or the way they learned to navigate the world. That's cutting close. I'm going to write about making fun of people's names, which is NOT the same as name-calling.
When a friend started working at the Social Security office she was told "It's very important to spell a person's name correctly. Some people, all they have in the world is their name." She took that to heart and passed it along. It's good advice to remember. When women get married or become nuns they change their name. Our name is so closely tied to our identity. It's extremely important to treat each other's names with respect.
Homescale - 183 lbs.
Bullying can take many forms. In grade school someone might call someone else a derogatory name. That is name calling. Another way to bully is to make fun of people for the choices they make or the choices their parents made or the way they learned to navigate the world. That's cutting close. I'm going to write about making fun of people's names, which is NOT the same as name-calling.
When a friend started working at the Social Security office she was told "It's very important to spell a person's name correctly. Some people, all they have in the world is their name." She took that to heart and passed it along. It's good advice to remember. When women get married or become nuns they change their name. Our name is so closely tied to our identity. It's extremely important to treat each other's names with respect.
I found myself in a conversation with 2 other people of my race, and one person of another race. One of the people of my race started making fun of the first names of people he'd heard that sounded exotic to him, names he associated with people of the person sitting with us, who was of another race.
I felt so uncomfortable. The other race person was gracious. But I was an idiot laughing at everything even though I was hating being there. It was a situation where I felt vulnerable and both the same race people were way above me in power and influence. The other race person was sort of in an seperate but also vulnerable class. I didn't have the courage to say anything in that situation. I wish I did have the courage but I didn't. I just sat there scared and uncomfortable and laughed along like a complete idiot.
It took me days to come to graceful solution, of how I should have handled the situation. I concluded that I should have light-heartedly contributed this, "Isn't it interesting how fashions in names change? My mom's name is Theodosia which is very uncommon now, but in her homeroom alone, there were 3 other girls with the same name."
Homescale - 183 lbs.
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