I Bully You Because…

By, Shawn Harris 

I bully you because you’re weak.  Because you’re short, tall, fat, or skinny.  I bully you because you’re strong, black, white, Asian, Mexican & Foreign.  I bully you because you come from a land other than mine.  I bully you because of your customs & freedoms, your constitution, citizenship, culture, creed & kind.  I bully you because of your religion, status, rank, or lack thereof.  Your possessions & popularity, your poverty, your riches.  I bully you because you’re a man, a girl, a boy, a woman, or because of your age.   I bully you because of the gang you claim, the game you played, your grades, or your position on our team.  I bully you because she loves you & she hates me, because he likes you & he hates me.  I bully you because of your talents & my lacking of talent. Your God given gifts or the sway of your hips.  The color & length of your hair, its texture, its style.  Your teeth, your charisma, your magnetism.  I bully you because you’re wild.  You’re a prisoner, a slave, a servant, a maid.  A sex offender, a rapist, a killer, a parolee, an underclassman, a freshman, a rookie, a minority partner.  I bully you because you’re a meth head, crack head, an addict, a drunk, a monster.  You’re a rapper, a rocker, a biker, a prep, a geek, a nerd, or because of your tattooed & pierced flesh.  I bully you because you’re gay, straight, or lesbian.  You’re country, suburban, or ghetto.

Supposedly I bully you for all these reasons & more, but the real reason I’m bullying you for, is simply this: you’re different.  I simply see you as different than myself.  You are other than me.  I don’t know how to see pieces of me in others.  I bully you because I can’t synthesize, incorporate, consolidate, nor integrate.  Therefore, I don’t respect or appreciate diversity.  I bully you because we’re simply not the same…

I bully you because I feed off your fear.  I’m empowered by your fear & discomfort.  I bully you because your fear is my currency.  They respect me because I reject you.  They don’t want me to do to them what I do to you.  I bully you because I get paid to.  Because bids & contracts are granted, budgets are allotted, land & natural resources are divided.  I bully you because everybody laughs at my jokes when the jokes on you.  When I poke fun at you my ego is fed.  My popularity increases as your sense of self worth decreases.  I bully you because I’m built up when you’re broken down.  I bully you because I’m big city & you’re small town.  I bully you because you don’t eat what I eat or pray like I pray.  You don’t believe as I believe or do what I do.  I bully you because it’s easy.  Because I’m lazy & lethargic.  Because I’m afraid & this is my plea & my cry.  I’m calling out for help.  I bully you because I’m bitter, scorned, & vengeful.  I’m venomous.  I bully you because I’m insecure, unsure, & hypersensitive.  I bully you because I’m defensive, because I’m deflecting, because I’m bloodthirsty, because I’m an idiot.  I’m weak, frail, & hurting.  I’m lonely & hungry for affection.  I bully you because I externalize my power in the form of my gun, my genitals, my materialization.  My house, my cars, my government, my laws, my political affiliations.  My badge, my uniform, my skin, my muscle, my might.  My education, my deceptive intelligence, my trophy wife. 

Supposedly I bully you for all these reasons & more, but the real reason I’m bullying you for, is simply this: you’re different.  I simply see you as different than myself.  You are other than me.  I don’t know how to see pieces of me in others.  I bully you because I can’t synthesize, incorporate, consolidate, nor integrate.  Therefore, I don’t respect or appreciate diversity.  I bully you because we’re simply not the same…