The story about the bus driver who was aggressive towards an immigrant family and who now faces the possibility of racism charges should be an eye opener for our society.

This story came to public attention because one young woman had the courage to stand up to a bully.

How many of us would have done the same in her shoes? Would we have protested loudly as she did and filed a police report, or would we have looked the other way, pretending we hadn’t seen anything because it’s none of our business? In a country where people still feel it is acceptable to speak about those of a different skin colour in disparaging terms, this woman’s actions are to be applauded. She has taught a lesson to all of us that one person can still make a difference even in the face of cold indifference and sheer inhumanity to man.

The impact this story made is significant not merely because one person voiced her disgust at racist behaviour and actually did something about it, but because it shows that if we stand by and do nothing, we are actually silently condoning the behaviour. Once you do nothing, the bully feels there is nothing wrong with his action, and he will be encouraged to repeat it again and again. It would be interesting to know if this particular bus driver has behaved in the same way each and every time a black person boarded his bus in the past. It is highly unlikely that this was just an isolated incident which just happened to be witnessed by an assertive citizen (who happened to be a lawyer fully aware of her rights) and who happened to be on the bus that day. The more likely explanation is that this man frequently demonstrated this attitude towards those of another race, but no one ever had the temerity to stop him or point out that he was wrong.

If we look at the wider picture, this incident should drive home the point that all of us are individually responsible for putting a stop to bullying by out of control thugs.

This time it was racism, but it could be any other form of unacceptable social behaviour or aggression: a man hitting a woman in front of our very eyes, or a parent being violent towards a child, or someone sadistically hurting an animal. Bullying always consists of a person lashing out against those he perceives as being weak and vulnerable and unable to defend him or herself. It says much about our society if we reach the point where we witness aggression but wash our hands of any involvement because “it has nothing to do with us.” We should never allow ourselves to reach the point where we would prefer to turn the other way and rush off to carry on with our own lives, rather than stopping dead in our tracks and voicing our disapproval.

If that woman had not taken action but simply got off at the next stop, the bus driver would have succeeded in browbeating that immigrant family into submission and he would have felt justified in repeating his actions another time.

The ugly face of racism would have won, but we, as a society, would have been much the poorer.