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Is This Disrespectful?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by ZenMusic, Mar 5, 2014.

  1. ZenMusic

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    So I was looking through Google and this Man called Tyler Clementi showed up, it said that he jumped to his death because someone showed a video of him kissing another man to the campus. There were then.4 other teens that had killed themselves around the same time in 2010 as Tyler, and my heart broke a little more each time I read one. I then started crying, but I feel like I don't have a right to because I didn't know them personally?
     
  2. Csp1993

    Csp1993 Guest

    You shouldn't feel bad. It's good that you feel empathy. What happened to them is a terrible thing that no one should have to go through.
     
  3. Silver Sparrow

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    You have a right to feel however you feel. It's not disrespectful to feel upset.
     
  4. Foster

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    It's not disrespectful at all. I get emotional very easily, it just means you have empathy-which is a good thing.
     
  5. Kreiger

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    There's nothing wrong with letting their tragedy influence you. It can put things in perspective, and learn the consequences of such senseless bullying. These suicides are awful in every way, but hopefully by learning about them we can prevent future ones.
     
  6. Ruby Dragon

    Ruby Dragon Well-Known Member

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    It's not disrespectful at all. Like others have said, it shows that you have empathy. It's a terrible thing that happened, and there's nothing wrong with feeling sad about it. If only bullies knew what they're doing to the people they bully!
     
  7. Straw_berry

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    A show of empathy is indeed good and not disrespectful Nyu~
     
  8. Chip

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    It's not disrespectful, and no one should ever tell you how it is or is not OK to feel, because what and how you feel is totally your experience.

    It's perfectly normal and acceptable to feel for someone who has suffered, and it's nothing to be ashamed of or feel guilty about. It means you're a caring, empathic person. :slight_smile:

    I can't believe it's been almost 4 years since the Tyler Clementi case happened. He was an out gay college freshman, who had a somewhat homophobic roommate. Tyler had his boyfriend over, the roommate set up his laptop to webcam broadcast what happened in the room while the roommate was gone and Tyler was there with his boyfriend.

    It was an incredibly humiliating experience -- Clementi told others about it and was clearly distraught -- and the roommate was a douche. It seems certain that the roommate didn't intend for things to happen like they did, and what he did was thoughtless and ignorant, but also, arguably, the stupid and not-well-thought-out decisions that aren't atypical for many 19 year olds.

    The roommate went to jail for a short time and is now living his life. Clementi, unfortunately, is not.

    The case did a lot to bring attention to the issue of school bullying, and much progress has been made. There's a lot less tolerance for gay bashing and bullying in schools now as a result of Clementi and the other youth that killed themselves. But we still have a lot to do.

    Not only is it good for you to be talking about how it made you feel -- that's healthy and normal -- it's also good to remind people about the incident so that we can continue to work to make our schools a safer place for LGBT and other bullied youth.