Sigh. We’ve been here before. You’re in grade school going about your day trying to get a decent education when someone decides to disrupt your peace with violence. The bully. You know, the ones that have inner turmoil from whatever is going on in their lives or at home and brings it with them to school to project their misery onto others.
It sucks because victimized students receive mixed messages on what to do in these situations. Some are told to tell an adult, others are told to defend themselves. Then, there’s the ones who retaliate by invoking violence of their own through school shootings and stabbings. In some of the saddest cases, there’s the ones who are so traumatized by the experience of bullying that they take their own lives.
One case of bullying took a left turn at a high school in Florida during a lunch period. The video of a female student attacking another female student went viral on Friday. In the 40 second clip, the student can be seen throwing multiple punches at the student’s head. The female student then proceeds to take a break from the beating before pummeling the student again.
Meanwhile, no one comes to the victim’s defense — not even the adults in the cafeteria. Suddenly, another female student intervenes and defends the attacked student causing the bully to retreat from assaulting the defenseless student.
With no local news coverage, the confirmed identities of those involved have not been revealed. However, several people on social media who are commenting about the incident automatically pinpointed the races involved. Allegedly, the bully was a white female student, the victim a Muslim female student, and the good samaritan a Black female student.
According to an account of the incident from the Black student that got involved, she said she witnessed the victim, who she called “Sara,” being repeatedly hit by the bully, who she identified as “Rose,” from six tables away and was going to stop the assault, but then saw how Sara looked and proceeded to physically defend her from Rose. She also added that she, along with Rose, was suspended for five days.
Many people who saw the video had supportive words for Sara and the Good Samaritan student, while simultaneously condemning what many deemed deplorable, racist actions of Rose.
People portraying themselves as Black on social media (because some of those accounts seem like bots or fakes) speculated on the safety of the Good Samaritan’s life, saying things in the comments such as, “She better watch her back,” “Be careful sis,” and more discouraging phrases that are reminiscent of a traumatized and scared person who doesn’t want to disrupt the status quo or rock the boat.
However, there was also a segment of people that critiqued the Black student for getting involved and defending someone who is not Black. Their sentiments were that because “Black women are never protected” that Black women should no longer “cape” or get involved in other people’s issues. YouTuber Paris Milan channeled this mindset in a video she released early on Sunday.
But, what these critics fail to realize is that the slogan “Protect Black Women” applies not only to others in society or the Black man, but it also applies to Black women. The fact that people who look like her are reprimanding the Black female student because of their own life experiences or what they’ve seen portrayed in media is not only hypocritical, but it also defeats the overarching goal of protecting Black women, period.
How can some Black women even muster to do the work of racists by spurring the very threats to this Black student that is heard from the likes of self-hating people, racists or those documented in old slavery or race-based films? The Boondock’s Uncle Ruckus, D’Jango Unchained’s Stephen and political commentator Candace Owens comes to mind. Scared, brainwashed, and still bounded by mental chains.
Interestingly enough, Muslims have something in common with Black people. They, too, have suffered the atrocities of racially-charged bullying in youth and adulthood. A reported spike in anti-Muslim incidents have occurred since 2015 with California having the most incidents, and New York, Texas, and Florida following close behind, according to a report by the New America Muslim Diaspora Initiative. The report documenting anti-Muslim activities in the United States between 2012 and 2018 shows at least 763 separate incidents that range from mosque vandalization, anti-Muslim legislation, and violent crimes.
Florida, alone, has a 20+ million population and an estimated 164,846 Muslim population. Tampa and Tallahassee are reportedly the cities within the state with the most anti-Muslim activity. A study by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding released in 2018 showed that 42 percent of Muslim families have reported that at least one of their children had been bullied because of their religion.
President Joe Biden just recently revisited the anti-Muslim ban put in place by Trump at the beginning of his presidency term. This is occurring at the same time as the implementation of the new George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that bans police officers from using chokeholds and amends qualified immunity.
Also, what thoroughly needs to be investigated is the lack of adult supervision and management of the situation. The principle, teachers and, if applicable, the security are all at fault for this incident. The violence should have been stopped sooner, and the bully should have faced harsher penalties for her actions. Again, the public education system fails the children. Not having a safe and secure environment to obtain education is more the reason that students are put in these minacious scenarios.
At this moment, it’s self-sabotaging for Black women to isolate themselves from everyone in society — that includes isolation from Black men. Just like an abused woman whose abuser reduces her engagement with others who could possibly be allies and help her in a time of need, the narrative that Black women shouldn’t care for other human beings or be involved in society because Black women are not protected leaves the community susceptive to being desensitized human beings that lack empathy for others and prohibits the fundamental network needed for Black people to get sh– done in this country.
The whole philosophy of Black women “disengaging,” as some people would call it, from the world leaves the rationale side of me pondering whether this is another Jedi mind trick played by that mysterious Wizard of “U.s.” that has yet to be revealed. Is this another one of those efforts to keep the house divided?
Even with this said, it is understandable why the “Black female collective” is exhausted with always “saving” people. It is certainly true that Black women and children have often been left out or abandoned when it comes to basic needs and human issues that range from human trafficking and equal pay to police brutality and depictions in Hip Hop, to name a few. Black women need to be recognized and apologized to, there’s no doubt in that. There needs to be an allocation of organizations and resources specifically dedicated to the plight of Black women.
There’s no excuse for how women — in this case, Black women — have been treated historically. However, is the solution to become like those who oppressed or abandoned Black women (right now the discourse is about no longer protecting the Black male and saving Democrats) the only way to resolve the issue? More pointedly, do people really think that Black women being out for themselves no matter who is hurt in the process (even in the case of grade school students) is going to make the situation better? The way things are going, we’re about to see.
