I think we’re entering a brave new era of humanity here, one where it’s not only considered ok to speak up when people are being awful, but it kind of makes you awful if you don’t. If we’re going to change things for the better, after all, we all have to be willing to challenge those who are stuck in the past.
This person is trying to do just that, calling on others to check their privilege.
As more and more schools are going from analog to digital as far as assignments, the type and newness of student’s electronics are becoming one more thing that kids can bully each other about – which is what’s happening to this girl, who has an older, hand-me-down laptop.
My school made the switch from paper to laptops/iPads two years ago, and since then you can really see who’s parents have money.
I’m currently using some Asus my uncle gave me because my family are below the poverty line, he bought it in 2011, and although the battery is shot, it still runs and word works so I don’t need much else.
A girl in the class made a video “rating” everyone’s laptop and gave OPs a 3/10, also making fun of her shoes in the process.
OP confronted her about the video, telling her exactly why it was harmful.
There is a pretty big financial divide in my town, and thus a large divide in the school, which is one of two secondary schools. A girl in my class posted a tiktok where she was rating people’s laptops/iPads, she recorded mine which was plugged in with it’s external hard drive and you could very clearly see the left side of the screen that is broken.
She rated it a -3/10 of and wrote “Poor girl” and zoomed in on my shoes to prove a point, my shoes are fine they’re just not air force 1s. Other laptops that weren’t the latest MacBook or the latest iPad got rated pretty low. One of my friend’s showed me her video, and I confronted her about it. She seems really sheltered and I asked her to take it down. She refused so then I told her, saying that it’s incredibly classist and I don’t want that on the internet.
When the girl refused to listen, take the video down, or even try to understand, OP got frustrated and went off.
She still refused and I got madder eager l each time, eventually I just said, “check your fu**ing privilege, not everyone can afford a €2000 laptop and not everyone fu**ing prioritizes flashy over functional.”
The video is still up and now OPs friends are accusing her of overreacting and being a jerk.
She hasn’t taken down the video, and my friend who showed me it says I overreacted and that made me an asshole.
She said she’s just sheltered and I shouldn’t overreact like that.
AITA?
So, is she being the as$hole? Let’s see what Reddit has to say!
Lots of people thought she should report it to the school, because there could be illegalities involved.
And it there aren’t laws, the news would probably still be willing to shame her.
You shouldn’t embarrass kids for things they can’t control just for TikTok views.
She could wait and see if OP feels badly about it one day.
This is an important distinction.
I do agree, obviously, that OP is not in the wrong here and at that the other girl definitely is, and that OP wasn’t wrong to call her out for her privilege.
That said, I do think the commenters could have been a bit more restrained, given that BOTH parties are children who are still learning.
What do you think? I want to hear about it in the comments!