Woke Bullies: Did an Honest Fight Poison the World?
Where did all the woke bullies come from? It's a common question in recent years.
There's no simple answer, but it seems in our war against bullying, we contributed to their creation.
The idea of bullying isn't anything new.
You might recall bullies in the Bible such as David and Goliath. Or maybe the Good Samaritan, kind of.
And the idea of "wokeness" isn't new, either. But since 2020, we have continued to find hyper wokeness in all corners of life.
But original wokeness was a good thing. And still can be.
The term's origin goes back to the 1940s when it meant to be aware of social issues.
To fight clear systematic racism and segregation was a good fight.
Dr. Martin Luther King contributed to the name with his 1962 speech titled "Remaining Awake During a Great Revolution."
In other words, to be "asleep" meant to be ignorant of racial inequality. Or at least not against it.
This was all well and good. But at some point, the attention moved from legitimate racial concerns to attempts to control society with hyper wokeness.
We could cover a lot, but it seems the anti-bullying movement helped create woke bullies.
Let's head back to the 1990s to find out.
The Bullied
It was April 20, 1999. Just another Tuesday as I spaced out in 6th-hour study hall.
So I thought.
But around 11 AM local time in Littleton, CO, the country changed.
That's when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into Columbine High School for the last time. They forever changed the country by donning trench coats and carrying several weapons and explosives.
Before long, the duo would take 13 lives, then end their own in the school library and injure over 20.
The mental injuries are untold.
And in the days following the massacre, we learned bullying was a contributing factor.
Kids thought twice about who they put in garbage cans from then on.
Well, at least until the sting wore off.
History
The Columbine shooting was not the first in the United States. And it wasn't the deadliest, second to the University of Texas tower shooting in 1966 at the time.
Believe it or not, the first recorded student-on-student school shooting in US history goes way back to 1867. That's when a 13-year old brought a pistol to a New York City school and injured a classmate.
But what made Littleton different, in addition to the high fatality count, was the reported cause.
Before Columbine, we didn't talk about school shootings in class. Bullying was a part of any school, and we never put the two together.
While psychiatric professionals can only speculate, many believe they suffered unchecked mental health disorders.
But the bullying piece of the story gained traction.
More schools targeted the source for bullying and formally raised awareness.
Most people didn't justify the actions of Klebold and Harris. But they showed many people what happens when people reach a breaking point.
That's when the support groups and zero-tolerance policies started.
In retrospect, these policies undoubtedly contributed to the modern woke bullies we see today.
Anti-Bullying Campaigns
With Columbine serving as a significant milestone in school history, people pushed for legislation to prevent future assaults.
Georgia was the first to fight bullying in 1999:
Defined bullying as a physical and behavioral problem both in-person and online
Required school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies
Required prohibition to be included in student code of conduct
Student school re-assignment for repeated bullying.
While laws passed, schools also adopted other campaigns.
In 2005 Ross Ellis founded the Stomp Out Bullying campaign, which is still active.
The national organization works to prevent bullying by supporting people victimized by bullies and spreading awareness.
From their website:
As more schools adopted anti-bullying policies, the tide turned. At first, we searched for clear signs of abuse or mental health issues caused by bullying.
But to be proactive, we sought out offensive behavior and labeled it.
Soon, instead of identifying bullying for what it was, we looked for connections between bullying and inequality where it didn't necessarily exist.
In reality, most kids bully other kids because someone bullied them. Not because they are racist or sexist.
Then social media happened.
Typical bullies thrived online. And eventually, woke bullies did too.
Online Bullies
In the early 21st century, two things changed the world and bullying: smartphones and social media.
The idea of communicating with friends online is fun. But it didn't take long for social media to show its dark side.
Students quantified their identity online with "friend" lists, likes, and public invites.
In the past, student interaction was limited outside of school hours. But with social media it became a tool for bullying. A tool that serviced its users 24 hours a day.
We've heard countless stories like the heartbreaking suicide of Amanda Todd. The 15-year-old girl from British Columbia that hanged herself after relentless online bullying from schoolmates.
Or the story of Mallory Rose Grossman, a 12-year-old girl who killed herself after constant bullying on Snapchat.
Sadly, there are far more instances of this than I expected.
In the past, the bus driver could quickly identify bullying. But online, kids can sit perfectly silent while tormenting each other to the point of suicide.
But the internet was a double-edged sword for bullies.
While new bullying avenues opened, anti-bullying groups also formed and spread awareness.
Widened, or Narrowed Scope?
Once students and teachers got involved online, they had the power of reporting students with screenshots of student behavior.
In the past, if adults didn't see the bullying first hand, they relied on children's stories. But with social media, they could see and touch it.
As long as someone didn't delete it.
As more people became aware of bullying, more parents and school admins became vigilant.
That's when support groups became popular, and schools focused more on social issues such as racism.
But it was more than bullying awareness. People began to question life's everyday details.
That's when we saw a shift from defense to offense, where woke bullies took their first steps.
Zooming In on Behavior
After Columbine, the school stopped showing documentary films with guns or violence.
And they even took Chinese food off the menu because that was a lunch option on April 20, 1999.
Not sure public school grade Kung-Pao was a good idea to begin with.
And the dress code changed too.
Columbine students could no longer wear camouflage clothing as SWAT officers wore it on 4/20/99.
Needless to say, trench coats were no longer welcome
My intent is not to criticize these changes. Only to point out how we as people change the details of daily life following a tragic event.
But at some point, it becomes too much. Should we ban friends named Eric and Dylan from hanging out together?
Of course not, but where is the line? It's hard to say.
That's how we get these strict policies over speech and behavior with woke bullies.
We don't feel like we're collectively in a position to question people's actions when they experience something we don't.
Marketplace and Workplace
While anti-discrimination policies and laws became more popular with schools, they also entered the workplace—specifically, corporate America.
As the Information Age accelerated into the 21st century, news traveled quicker.
Especially bad news.
In 1998 we all heard of Matthew Shapard. Two men severely beat Shepard after luring him out of a bar and tied him to a fence in rural Wyoming.
Then, they left him to freeze to death.
A cyclist found him the next day clinging to life. Shepard died in the hospital a few days later.
Why? Because he was gay.
Accompanying the extreme sadness of this was anger, of course.
But as bad as people wanted to grab pitchforks and torches, they did their posse forming in court.
The Shepard case spearheaded the fight against hate crimes, leading to The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.
A more popular anti-discrimination law is Affirmative Action, which started in the 1960s. But most employers didn't participate in excessive "diversity" training until they were required to by law.
Or public opinion.
And most people support anti-discrimination and anti-hate laws, so we kept making them.
Diversity training increased, and hiring practices changed.
But how did we go from anti-hate to telling white people to "be less white?"
Many brands introduced more extreme versions of diversity training through 2020. But did they genuinely believe in it?
Or did the marketing teams do what they had to do to retain customers and not end up on the boycott block?
Consumer Behavior
Customer perception changed too.
Consumers looked at businesses in terms of their awareness of social issues instead of product quality.
As brands want to side with majority beliefs for fear of losing customers, they included more social messaging in marketing campaigns.
A great example is the Twix commercial from last October, all about gender identity and nothing about chocolate treats.
We created an era where everyday customers could interact with big brands from their smartphones.
Unfortunately, the voices of the few online appeared to represent most Americans.
Of course, they didn't.
Ironic Twist
Bullying and wokeness are complicated and sensitive issues.
And it's essential to do everything we can to avoid teen suicide and bullying. Kids should feel welcome in school and should have resources to help them.
The same thing goes for adults.
People of all backgrounds and beliefs have the right to pursue happiness in this country and not be victims of bullies or violence.
When we hear of murders based on sexual orientation or other hate crimes, we support laws in hopes of preventing violence.
But as Denzel Washington said, you can't legislate love.
No law or policy will eradicate bigotry.
Yes, let's take steps to fight discrimination, for sure.
On the other hand, let's not get carried away and persecute people based on our emotions or make it a contest.
It seems in our fight to stop bullying, we created the woke bullies that now police our lives.