Prejudiced Group

Hi,

I would like to share my experience of my being in a group of people that were unkind to one or more individuals. This experiences happened in my primary school.

I had a clique of friends who were good in soccer and we also stuck together on the same team when we played soccer during recess. This meant that we placed all the better players on one team, while the others formed another team, making it a heavily lopsided match in terms of skill. Furthermore, there were a few bullies in our group who decided to misuse their "power" and control the rules of the game. For example, when the opponent team scored, they would find a way to explain that it was disallowed, eg. offside. This made our group feel high and mighty. However, it hurt the others' feelings. This eventually led to class lessons. A few people in our group tormented others and made fun of them, causing teachers to take action.

At first, when I realised that we would never lose the daily soccer matches, I felt quite good and decided to play along with their plan. However, I had not enough courage to bully others, so all I did was to join their group but not defend the victims. As the days went by, I felt quite bored and frustrated because it was more interesting to lose at times and my groupmates were beginning to carry things too far. I began to feel guilty and so I did not really linger with that group already. However, it was quite hard to do so because I feared the prospect of being bullied by them. Therefore, I took a quiet role in our group until we departed for our own secondary schools. Fortunately, after the teachers intruded into our affairs, my groupmates turned for the better and started making friends with the people they once bullied.

Looking back now, I feel really guilty for joining their group and not having the bravery to stand for what is right. I felt that I was prejudiced against those who could not play soccer better than me. I hope that they will forgive me for my selfish actions and that I will not do such a horrid thing in the future. It is so true to say that "making 1 more friend is better than making 1 new enemy".

Nathanael