new thread
It’s a moment every parent dreads: the day their child comes home from school in tears, explaining that a student at school bullied them.
That’s exactly what happened to 9-year-old Bodi Irvine from Gilbert, Arizona, last week.
When the young boy’s father, Isaac, heard what happened, he was furious -- but he also used it as an opportunity to teach his son, and other children like him, an important lesson. Now his message is going viral.
“You got bullied today, huh?” Isaac asked his son in a Facebook video, which has been viewed nearly 60,000 times. “What happened? You want to talk about it?”
Talking to my son about getting bullied about his long hair. I'm going to read him the comments.
Posted by Isaac Irvine on Tuesday, March 7, 2017
The third-grader explained that two boys made fun of his long hair. Isaac told CBS News both of his identical twin boys, Adin and Bodi, decided last year that they wanted to grow out their blonde hair to donate to kids with cancer. Their hair needs to be at least 10 inches long before they can donate.
“And some kids came by and said you look like a girl?” Isaac asked in the video.
“Yeah,” Bodi said. “It made me feel sad.”
Bullying can happen to anyone, Irvine told Bodi, explaining that he’s been made fun of over the years because of his tattoos. Bodi told his dad he let the boys’ hurtful comments “roll off his back.”
“That’s a good thing,” Isaac said. “I’m glad you didn’t get angry.”
“I think being different is a good thing,” said Bodi, as the video ended. “It means you think different than other people.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/dads-lesson-to-9-year-old-son-about-bullying-goes-viral/ar-AAogBNq?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
Jake-
Thank you for posting the link to the article. I read through the article. It is about time that parents start talking to their kids about bullying when it comes to hair length. I realized in thinking about it, that those same kids who make fun of other kids about hair length, are probably the ones who grow up to be like that in the job world. I do not understand why it is ok for adults to bully other adults about hair length. I think this article is poignant because it highlights that tactics used by employers and supervisors as being the same ones a child uses on the school ground to intimidate others.
My hair is part of my cultures, and how I express my identity. I tell people at time of hiring about my background and I am allowed to keep my hair by law. I do not understand why people of other ethnic backgrounds are not respected when it comes to how they want to have their hair. It helps I speak American Indian languages as my first languages when it comes to this, but that should not be a litmus test either. It frustrates me to see that these little white boys were disrespected about their hair choices and expression.
Hopefully this will get around the inter-net enough that it inspires other little boys to do the same thing. There are almost no cultural reasons for me to cut my hair, and I would not grow it out to donate, unless there was good reason to donate. In the case of these little white boys, it is part of their identity to show love to other people by growing out their hair and then donating it. They apparently do not have any cultural reasons not to do this, and they should be respected for expressing love for others.
I am hoping that enough people who work in corporate environments see this and start to gain a better understanding of long hair. It frustrates me that in this age of super-empowerment something as benign as hair length is still a job-killer for men. Hopefully kids like these two little white boys and their father, can help de-narrow the minds of employers.