Discrimination Awareness Week

DAY 2



The "weed" incident

Some time ago I visited one of the Japanese Parks with a good friend of mine. As we were making our way across the park's walkway, we came upon these two girls exhibiting really "low" behavior in an attempt to be what they thought was "funny". They had placed panda food (bamboo) on the sidewalk and were asking Picos that were passing by if they were interested in buying "weed". However, their idea of fun didn't stop there, they were also disrespecting people passing by that walked through their "weed patch". They would spew out insults and resort to horrible name calling.

Their language was so appalling. They were using all sorts of racial slurs as well as very graphic and degrading terms.

For some reason they let me pass by with no problem whatsoever, but when my good friend walked past their "weed" and stepped on some, she wasn't as lucky as me. It seems they had chosen her as their target and all their negative attention focused on her. They unloaded on her hateful prejudice remarks and name calling - including the N word. My friend, being the righteous person she is, decided to take a stand against these two girls and stood her ground in silence holding her head very high. She stood in place, never speaking a word while these two girls kept falling lower and lower with their behavior.

Feeling very angry, I went back to my friend and stood quietly by her as a sign of support. She then whispered to me, "sweets, you don't have to stand with me", but how could I not? Isn't that what real friends do for each other; stand by you in the good and bad times? We stood there side-by-side while these two girls kept unloading on my friend insult after insult until they finally got tired and decided to move to another park, probably to find a new unsuspecting target.

What gave these two girls the right to pick on my friend and the other people that they chose to harass that day? Was it because of the way they looked, their culture, their skin color or just plain ignorance and boredom that drove these two girls to want to humiliate random people? They should be ashamed of themselves. Whatever their reason was to act this way, they were truly the ones that came out as losers thanks to their own low-class behavior.

First and most important, when you put other people down, the only one you are really hurting is yourself. This kind of behavior speaks so little of you. It turns the spotlight over your head uncovering to the rest of the world what you are really made of.

Secondly, "drugs" are not cool or funny. They have huge irreversible impacts on the mind an body, not to mention ripping families apart. They stop you from becoming who God had you meant to be. Why would you want to advertise drugs as a joke or game when you are well aware that drugs are for losers.

My dear friend came out of this unpleasant event as a winner. She showed class, intelligence and even respect for those girls without having to say a word to them. I am very proud of her.

Do you have a story?
If you have encountered or spoken out against discrimination in Pico please share it with us and it will be posted at the end of Discrimination Awareness Week.

Send your email to picoperfect@gmail.com.

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Learn more:

• Amnesty International: discrimination
• minorityrights.org