I suffered in my younger days was in during 2nd grade, and I was bullied due to the color of my skin (white).
My hometown of Muskogee Oklahoma did not start integration of schools until the early to mid 70's, which led to many racial issues (That still exist today). When I was in kindergarden I knew of only one black student in my class, Natalie Walker, who didn't judge people on their skin color (And someone I counted on as a friend even after I graduated high school) and treated everyone equally regardless of skin/creed/etc.
After kindergarden, Old Irving Elementary (Which was a building at least over 100 years old) was torn down to be replace with a new Irving Elementary. So for First Grade I, along with my 2 older brothers, was bused across town to Grant-Foreman Elementary along with all the other Irving students for the school year. Still, there were not many black students at the combination of Grant-Foreman (A white middle class district) and Irving (Lower/Middle working class district).
The start of Second Grade saw the original Irving students back at the location of Old Irving, but inside a brand new facility. But with the larger facility came the re-districting of the school districts. So Irving became a school for those in Lower/Middle working class area around the school and the school for those in the Poor/Low income class district North of Main street in Muskogee, what is the largely black population district.
Racial issues and tension were still strong in the mid 70's, and the new 'students' singled me out for no other reason than I was 'white'. So I had noone minus my peers (Pre-2nd grade) and my older brother (4 years older) to defend me. The bullying continued on and on, until after October 1977.
I remember this as if it occurred just yesterday, Those same bullying students were making fun of "My Daddy"....You know, the usual macho BS postering "Your Daddy is this...", "Your Daddy is that..." - not realizing that my Dad had just died very recently (Saturday October 22,1977), which as a 7 year old boy was very ABSOLUTELY devastating to deal with.
My teacher that year took those 'bullies' out of class and informed them of what had happened to me family, and that the bullying they did was not only uncalled for, but very very much in the wrong.
Those same black students, realized (I'm assuming after the principal contacted their parents) that what they did was wrong and apologized to me...And a REAL apology at that since maybe their conscience may have gotten the best of them after what they did and didn't realize what was going on in my family's life.
Those same 'black' students, from that time until now have remained some of my closest friends during my elementary/Jr. High/High school days. We all grew up together, understood we were going through the same BS in life regardless of 'skin color' and no longer saw each other as "black" or "white", or "insiders" or "outsiders" - but we saw each others as equals and friends.
I never recalled being bullied again after that or me being a bully...Not in my personality.
Ironically, My cousin Wendell who died on this very date back in 1989 was the opposite of me when it came to racial issues...Whereas I was dealing with a legal issues (Having NOTHING to do with race) due to my own stupidity and 'parental-neglect' in early 1988, he was dealing with legal issues because he was a member of a 'white racist' group that started a riot at
Muskogee High School against some of my friends (Of color - Whom I apologized to profusely afterwards because I did not want Wendell's views to be misconstrued as being my families outlook of race - sorry my Mom didn't play that ****, she was Irish/Scottish she married a Irish Cherokee, and raised her kids to know color/sexual preference/etc is NO reason to lash out at someone)