MMA world responds to Keaton Jones bullying video
Keaton Jones: “Why do you find joy in taking innocent people and finding a way to be mean to ’em? They make fun of my nose. They call me ugly.”
Human beings react to people, not ideas. Bullying is now widely regarded as a curse on communities, but in the MMA space, it never had a face. Then a heart-breaking video went viral of a boy from Knoxville, Tennessee named Keaton Jones speaking to the camera about how it feels to be bullied.
He’s a good-looking kid, with some scars. He looks like a little fighter, truth be told. But school is apparently hell for him.
Just out of curiosity, why do they bully? asked Keaton plaintively. What’s the point of it? Why do you find joy in taking innocent people and finding a way to be mean to ’em? They make fun of my nose. They call me ugly. They say I have no friends.
Jones’ mother Kimberly Jones, posted the video on her social network after picking up her son from school as he was afraid to go to lunch.
For the record, Keaton asked to do this AFTER he had he me pick him up AGAIN because he was afraid to go to lunch,” she wrote. “My kids are by no stretch perfect, and at home, he’s as all boy as they come, but by all accounts he’s good at school. Talk to your kids. I’ve even had friends of mine tell me their kids were only nice to him to get him to mess with people. We all know how it feels to want to belong, but only a select few know how it really feels not to belong anywhere.
The MMA world reacted quickly with the subject becoming dominant on social media. Below is a smattering of the responses. The young man has some big friends.
https://twitter.com/ufc/status/939937310107246592https://twitter.com/stipemiocicufc/status/940043930199982081https://twitter.com/danawhite/status/939754929866117125https://twitter.com/danawhite/status/939962677702492160https://twitter.com/RdosAnjosMMA/status/939964903812620289https://twitter.com/lionheartsmith/status/939998789422559233
Keaton has some hot friends, too.
https://twitter.com/vanessa_hanson/status/940001625287966720https://twitter.com/LucianaAndrade/status/939942996379803648
And there may be a solution at hand.
https://twitter.com/HotSauceHoltzy/status/939918883128983552
The solution to bullying is not entirely understood, but being able to fight back is one obvious cure. Light on cockroaches is another. It appears all the above are happening here, a little sliver of justice in a world that remains short of it.