So I only just heard about the Bradford kid who committed suicide, and it’s pushed me to talk. I feel like I’m desensitised to all the upsetting things I see on the news; when I hear of a death it rarely moves me, but this one did. Before this, I was writing a post on the Kim Kardashian incident, but after I read about this I realised I didn’t care. Who knows, maybe I’ll get back to it one day when I’m bored.
Right now I’m here to talk about a real life, normal boy who killed himself because of real life, normal bullying.
This is a child. An 11 year old boy who committed suicide. An 11 year old Asian boy. An 11 year old Asian, Muslim boy. According to that information, this community would have thought that suicide would be unthinkable for him. That’s why it struck me so hard.
I instantly put myself in this kids place and it made me think of something that’s wrong with older generations. Thick skin is something that non-white folk especially are often forced to have, and it’s something that is drilled into the minds of innocent kids. ‘We came here, we built a life, we evolved into something tough, don’t fuck it up by being soft.’
Asian families in particular have this thing, this idea that the kids need to be toughened up from birth. It’s something that we’re so proud of, but it has me wondering – at what cost?
Read more