Sowell on Bullying

Tom Sowell points out the staggering hypocrisy of the media's campaign against bullying:

The current media and political crusade against "bullying" in schools seems... to be based on what groups are in vogue at the moment. For years, there have been local newspaper stories about black kids in schools in New York and Philadelphia beating up Asian classmates, some beaten so badly as to require medical treatment.

But the national media hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. Asian Americans are not in vogue today, just as blacks were not in vogue in the 1920s.
Meanwhile, the media are focused on bullying directed against youngsters who are homosexual. Gays are in vogue.

Most of the stories about the bullying of gays in schools are about words directed against them, not about their suffering the violence that has long been directed against Asian youngsters or about the failure of the authorities to do anything serious to stop black kids from beating up Asian kids.

An excellent point. He makes some more important ones when he notes that extending the definition of bullying to include speech threatens fundamental rights and that the anti-bullying activists are themselves acting frequently like bullies. Read the whole article here.