1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: How awful did people talk pre-social media?
If you were a bully at school in the 1970s, there were no consequences.
Teachers shrugged their shoulders and said it was just how things were.
The only way to avoid being bullied was to change schools or have adults teach you how to avoid being picked on. No one did that for me. No one seemed to try to change the bullies’ behavior. Their parents were usually bullies as well.
I finally figured out that having pop culture knowledge was one way to have something in common with my classmates. I got better at social interaction, but no thanks to anyone else.
But I heard people say all kinds of racist, classist things in the 1970s and 80s, and they didn’t really get called on it. My history teacher actually did that once. She called one of my classmates a bigot after he said something racist. I remember that so clearly, even where we were at the time. She really read him the riot act.
Sometimes kids would realize that they had just embarrassed themselves by making a racist comment in front of a teacher who was a POC.
It was changes in the culture that made that kind of language unacceptable that altered the way people spoke.
Comment by ideapit at 01/02/2025 at 21:08 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I grew up in the 70/80s. Bullies were bullies for sure but they had to stand by their actions.
Most were bullies until they got their asses kicked by someone.
I had non-white friends growing up. They got slandered and called racist names all the time. But whoever did it only did it once because then they'd get the beat down of their life.
But that was a neanderthal, temper ridden bunch of guys. There was no nuanced, psychological warfare bullying (which often seemed worse to me).
Unfortunately, I think part of the change was just that people didn't say those things anymore. They still think, feel and act on them.