Bullying, The Washington Post and Me When I was young in the 1950’s and 1960’s bullying was considered physically threatening or actually physically harming someone who was weaker than you. By the time that I began working for the Washington Post in the late 1990’s bullying had become insulting, teasing or disagreeing with someone. However not all bullying was equal. At the paper only protected minorities, gays and women could be victims of bullying by unprotected minorities namely men and heterosexuals especially if they were white. I found this out the hard way. While having a debate on the merits of communism with a fellow employee in advertising operations, I took the side against communism, in the middle of our conversation a fat white chick pipes up and says to me, “Shut up Tom I have to work with him.” Actually I think she fancied the man who was gay. I ignored her at first and continued debating. Then after the third time she told me to shut up and turned to her and replied, “No I won’t shut up” To which fat chick responded, “You want me to go home?” To which I replied, “What do I care you not doing any work anyway.” So she got up and left work. I figured that was that and continued doing all the work which was the norm. Imagine my naive understanding of the Washington Post world. Upon returning to work on Monday I was called into my supervisor’s office and told I’d been written up for if you can believe it, instigating a conversation. Apparently the reasoning was that if I had not been speaking to my coworker then fat chick would not have had to tell me to shut up. I took the paper with I still have to this day and walked out of his office with a new understanding of the way things were. As a straight, white older male I was to remain silent in the presence of my political superiors, women, gays, minorities and such and cast my eyes downward in their presence. However, fat chick also was written up for leaving work early and she was determined to get m...