Decades of research on peer-to-peer maltreatment in childhood and adolescence, together with anti-bullying advocacy, have established bullying as a serious public health, educational and mental health issue.

Looking at the long-term harms of bullying, psychologist Dieter Wolke and his colleagues found that “victims of childhood bullying, including those that bullied others (bully-victims), were at increased risk of poor health, wealth and social-relationship outcomes in adulthood.”

Research like this has helped move the needle. Both the World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada now recognize bullying as a significant and preventable public health concern.

Yet much of the anti-bullying movement still does not give adequate attention to racialized bullying. Racialized or racist bullying “is defined as bullying motivated by prejudice against someone’s actual or perceived race, ethnicity, culture, citizenship status or religion.”

Read more: Girls in hijab experience overlapping forms of racial and gendered violence

All forms of bullying affect young people’s well-being and sense of belonging. Racialized bullying, however, has an added dimension of harm. It transforms an interpersonal experience of rejection into a broader lesson about where a person stands in society and how others regard them. That’s because it’s shaped by the wider racial meanings, stereotypes and hierarchies already circulating around young people.

This means anti-racialized bullying work must go beyond simply reacting. It must also be proactive sociocultural work that builds conditions of belonging, recognition and safety before the next incident takes place.

Understanding this added layer — and how young people navigate racialized bullying, specifically Islamophobic bullying — guided our new report, Muslim Student Voices: Research........

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