I’m sure many of you have seen, or at least heard of, ¨Dear Fat People¨, a video by Canadian actress, Nicole Arbour. In her disgusting video, she attempts to delight her audience on the entertainment of obesity. She tries to justify her statement by including ¨And if there’s people watching with a specific health condition, this is not aimed at you.”–but you can not tell that someone has hypothyroidism, depression, or cushing’s syndrome just by looking at them.

People are judged by their race, age, sex, health condition, and so forth–all of which they have no control over.

According to CNN, children who are tormented by peers have more mental health issues later in life than children who are maltreated by adults. Many studies show that children who are repetitively bullied may have eating disorders, depression and anxiety, as well as multiple other mental disorders. According to the US National Library of Medicine, all the same can happen to bullies. Nobody wins in this situation and yet it continues to occur.

According to Nobullying.com, Asian-American teens are bullied more than any other racial group. Youth whose parents were born outside of the United States report having the highest rate of persecution.

But while these are all things they cannot control, people should not be harassed for things they can choose either. According to Dosomething.org, in a four-year study, Christians were the most discriminated against group worldwide, experiencing harassment in 168 countries– Muslims being the next with 121 countries. Regardless of religion, there are going to be bad people in every group, so we shouldn’t let stereotypes affect our opinion of someone.

Nothing is going to change if we don’t realize the problem. Bullies often have a plethora of problems themselves, and this cycle of torment will never cease to exist until we help people cope with these situations. Rather than putting up a plaque stating “bully-free zone”, we should help people go through whatever situation they are going through. Show confidence. If you are, or have ever been, a victim of bullying then the best thing you can do is to not let them think that they won. It’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it.  

Treat people with respect and stand up for others. If you see any type of harassment occurring report it to a trusted adult. Show kindness to both the bully and the person being bullied. They both need assurance that people care.

But most importantly, be kind to everyone you encounter because you don’t know what they’re going through. As Mother Teresa said, “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”