RECENTLY THERE HAS BEEN much concern over the issue of bullying in schools and as fate would have it, religious organisations and “religiously inspired” counselling agencies have presented solutions without considering the extent to which they themselves are contributing to this problem which is as old as the institution of education itself.
Definitions of bullying are in abundance but all descriptions are likely to focus on the use of superior strength against a weaker party and often the benefit is nothing more than bragging rights (just so you can say you did it). Such definitions are useful, but the traditional solution, which is telling the bully to “stop”, has proven futile.
There is no study available in the Barbadian context that clarifies the quantum of bullying taking place or the extent to which there is now more or less bullying than before, but it is clear that there is far greater attention to bullying now. This increased attention conveys the impression that more children are being bullied. However, there are few of us who cannot recall instances of bullying in our youth, especially if one attended a “boys” school (when such schools existed). In those instances, slaps about the head, along with the involuntary surrender of a tasty lunch were “normal” rites of passage. The fact that we now more concerned appears to be related to our preoccupation with political correctness and also because technology has increased the options available to the bully.
Notwithstanding these qualifications, the root of the problem appears to be the same and one might therefore argue that the final solution lies in a frontal assault on the root causes of bullying, which this author sees as the bully’s inclination to replicate the behaviours they witness in the wider society. There are few child psychologists who would argue that children invent behaviour; instead we generally agree that children mimic what they see “us” doing. As such, a child that develops a “foul mouth” must have heard a parent or some other influential adult “cussing” and in much the same way a young bully is simply replicating behaviour that they see older people practise.
We therefore ought to reflect seriously on our own behaviour and two issues immediately come to mind, with the first being corporal punishment. This form of punishment, which cannot be separated from slavery, remains popular in Barbados and is resolutely defended by some religious agencies which argue that it is biblically inspired and therefore sacrosanct. Corporal punishment is, however, the ultimate form of bullying since the person inflicting the punishment uses pain to “encourage” a particular course of action or as in the case of the bully just to prove that they have the power.
The benefit of a “good flogging” is instilled in children from early and it is therefore unsurprising that they later resort to similar techniques of “problem solving” which we then label as “domestic violence” or bullying. To my mind, there is little difference and the sooner we start explaining to children that violence against another is simply wrong, the sooner we can start to make an impact on this epidemic.
Our hypocrisy as it relates to the use of violence against another is related to the other major root of this problem, which is discrimination. It is most certainly the elephant in the room but as I recall the type of bullying that took place at Boys’ Foundation School and survived amalgamation, it was the “softer” boys that were the target. Bullies therefore punished boys who did not match their preferred image of masculinity by labelling them “sissies” and inflicting abuse which was no different from that which the more masculine girls received from their peers. Similarly, one family member recently recalled with some distress an incident of bullying in which an obese child was called “fatso” and had his lunch money taken away repeatedly by bullies who argued that “he had eaten enough already”.
These types of incidents are replicated across our schools and while the modus will vary, the themes are consistent and sadly reflective of our own prejudices as a society. Children are born into a society that institutionalises homophobia supported by a church that defends its right to define masculinity and femininity and further to oppress those who do not conform to preferred norms. It is therefore unsurprising that the more youthful products of our society assimilate these prejudices and express them in their own special way.
The related issue of weight-based discrimination is slightly more complex since there are important medical issues involved. However, these issues often mask a societal preoccupation with images of beauty that are slim and a concomitant condemnation of the person who is overweight. We therefore either objectify the fat person, as was done recently by Mr Killa in the tune Rolly Polly, or we blatantly mock that person as was done in the example presented above.
These situations replicate themselves with respect to several differences that people manifest, but in all instances the problem is rooted in institutionalised discrimination, which we seem unable to get beyond.
• Peter W. Wickham ([email protected]) is a political consultant and a director of Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES).
