Problems at David T. Howard: Discrimination

Homophobia

(Adjective)

Having or showing a dislike or prejudice towards gay people.

Racism

(noun)

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

At David T. Howard, with the mix of 6, 7, and 8th graders, there’s no doubt that there are going to be some problems. However, racism and homophobic are the two biggest problems at David T. Howard. As a LGBTQIA seventh grade student and a person of color, I have been subject to both of these. I’ve witnessed them myself.

These interactions mostly happen at lunch time, where everyone is with their friends and having a blast. Most of the time, anyway. My friends always sit next to the big tree in the back, and we’ve been subject to a lot. Misgendering, Homophobic comments, things like that. We just stood up for ourselves, and didn’t let it get us down. One good joke later we were fine. However, these comments were always something about what we were doing. And offensive comments, like “You look gay,” were always repiled in these manner: We took a deep breath, counted to five, and then repiled, “That’s how I’m supposed to look.”

Even when we (calmly) explained our pronouns and preferred name, we still got hate, which was to be expected sometimes. Not everyone was going to agree with your point of view; the way you see things.

Racism and Homophobia at David T. Howard seems to be hand in hand. A boy in seventh grade once called me a “monkey.” I was on my way to my friends so I didn’t think a lot about it, but thinking back on it, this was probably the cause of many fights. No one, and I mean no one, likes being called a monkey by their classmates.

Some people fail to notice that kids are prejudiced against their own race/sexuality/gender. They make comments and act like they are white/straight/cis-gender and say offesnive things that make people out of place.

I’ve also heard other comments, both offensive and degrading, so I won’t put them here.

Most comments don’t get reported because we’re middle schoolers. Most of us deal with problems like these on our own because it’s a big deal, but we believe we can handle it.

Repeated verbal bullying and discrimination because of your race, gender, or sexuality is not okay. Not by any means. I feel that Discriminination at David T. Howard must stop. Just because people are different from what we believe is “normal”, it does not mean that they should be judged.

Some of the kids I personally hang out with that are LGBTQIA+ know the homphobic kids in the school. We tend to call them “Homophobes.” Kids of different descent and race are profiled. Kids get called Monkeys. Some are told repeatedly to “go back to the jungle.”

Some kids don’t even know their being Homophobic or Racist. Some believe they’re just joking around, or that they are doing anything harmful - that they are simply “joking”. However, these jokes - offensive or not - are not okay. To say, “You look Homo.” or to degrade a person because of their preferred name and gender is simply not expectable.

However, I also have heard it from a Homophobic or Racist viewpoint. “You can joke around about your race/sexuality/gender, why can’t I do the same?”

To that, I simply state something that I’ve told practically anyone who’s asked me this:

In your question, you said that I could joke around about my own race/sexuality/gender. You can’t do the same because it’s mine. It’s my skin, my sexuality, and my gender. If other kids are joking around it’s mainly because they are the same race/sexuality/gender. It’s not that we’re saying “Because you are white/straight/cis-gender you can not make jokes about so and so.” We’re saying that because you are white/straight/cis-gender it could come off as offensive and hurting when you make such jokes.

Some kids discriminate on purpose. Some accidents. Either way, it must come to a close. Too many kids have been profiled on their race. But can we really stop Discriminstion at David T. Howard? And if we can, what steps should we take? What should we advocate? What should we do to make everyone feel expected at David T. Howard?