Dorothy Wright shook her head at the mention of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi’s death.
“That was really sad,” said a purple-clad Wright, sitting on a shaded bench at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. “The worst part about it is he took his own life.”
The two students who streamed video of Clementi engaging in intimacy with a man, which some speculate sparked his suicide, were 18 – technically adults – but Wright said their age didn’t surprise her.
“There’s a lot of grown people that can bully people now, too,” Wright said, blaming their actions on ignorance. “They don’t know better. They weren’t raised properly and have been like that their entire lives. If it happens when they’re little, they never grow out of it.”
Seated next to Wright, North Philadelphia resident Tyrone Curtis interjected.
“People have got to mind their damn business,” he said, adding that although he stayed to himself when he was younger, people will still pick on others.
“Everyone’s private life is their private life,” Wright said, agreeing with Curtis. “I think they have a problem with themselves that they don’t want to accept everyone. They don’t let people be what they want to be.”
Ashley Nguyen can be reached at ashley.nguyen@temple.edu.
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