Different Does Not Mean Less Than

Recently an article on NBC news caught my eye that was about a girl named Whitney Kropp, a sophomore at a Michigan high school. Sadly, she had always been bullied at school for being "different" than everyone else, yet this year, she was elected to be on her school's homecoming court. At first she was surprised and pleased. That was until she realized it was all just a prank by her classmates. They thought it would be somehow funny for her to win this title, highlighting how opposite the other kids thought she was from someone who would ever actually win this title. This really shocked and saddened me because something that seemed like such a nice thing, electing a bullied and unpopular girl to be in the homecoming court, turned out to be such a mean spirited and terrible prank, with no design but to make fun of the disparity between her and her more popular peers. Fortunately, once people got word of this prank, a huge amount of support began to come towards her. A Facebook page in her honor began getting thousands of likes, students made posters and hung them around the schools with slogan such as "We Look Up To You Whitney", and a local company made T-shirts in her favorite color that said "It's not cool to be cruel." At the homecoming game when the whole elected court stood on the field, she got an overwhelming amount of support and cheers.   Listening to her talk about some of the things she's had to go through in the past make me feel so sad that anyone could be that cruel, but more so are my feelings of admiration that she got through all of it, and is still such a positive person. Even though it began as a prank, she still attended the ceremony, and turned the whole negative experience into a positive one. While being interviewed, had such an inspired and upbeat mood about the whole situation. She took this as an opportunity to bring bullying to light, and give advice to other kids who are targets. She believes that you should always stand up for who you are, and never change just because some people don't like it. This whole story made me wonder again why people as a whole don't like difference. Like she said, people targeted her because of her hair, her clothes, her height, and just the fact that she was a unique person. If you ask individuals whether they think that being different is a bad thing, most people would say no. Why, then, do people spread so much hate as a unit when they see that someone doesn't want to be exactly like them? When you think about it there really is nothing wrong with being different, yet it's such a common thing to pick on someone about. Why should anyone be penalized for being themselves? From our childhood we have heard the phrase "different does not mean less than." Now, in our high school years, it needs to be taken into action much more than it currently is.