Pam Grier Voted U.G.L.Y. Bullying Bystander Role Model for 2014

Chicago, IL, October 13, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Award-winning actress, Pam Grier known as “Foxy” from the 1974 hit film Foxy Brown and her career comeback role as the title character in Quentin Tarantino’s 1997's Jackie Brown, has been named 2014 Bullying Bystander Role Model by international bullying prevention nonprofit, Hey U.G.L.Y.- Unique Gifted Lovable You. This is the first annual honor to be given each year during National Bullying Bystanders Unite Week, which is the third week of October.

Although Golden Globe Award-winner Grier has become quite successful over her lifetime, she did withstand many tragic events in her early years as told in her 2010 memoir Foxy: My Life in Three Acts.

Grier saw that bullying went further than just skin color ... that no matter where someone lives, bullying can happen anywhere.

Pam Grier

Hey U.G.L.Y. selected Grier because of an excerpt from that book where she talks about attending schools all over the world because her father was a mechanic in the United States Air Force.

While attending school in England Grier came to the aid of a Norwegian girl named Heidi who was being viciously bullied. Grier was amazed to see white students bullying Heidi, who the kids at school mistook for being German. Younger children during that time in England were unaware that she was Norwegian, and they associated German heritage to being Nazi-affiliated.

Grier could understand white on black bullying because she had experienced it often when she was in American schools. That’s what gave her the empathy and power to help Heidi. For the first time, Grier saw that bullying went further than just skin color. She could not bear to see someone enduring that pain. Grier stuck up for Heidi and even fought for her at times.

Heidi commented on how Grier was her only friend, since for the first time someone stuck up for her. In the book Grier goes on to mention that in England people weren’t raised to discriminate against black people like they were in America, so therefore she wasn’t bullied. She also saw that no matter where someone lives, bullying can happen anywhere.

The U.G.L.Y. Bullying Bystander Role Model award was created in honor of a Michigan City Indiana boy who was brutally bullied while twenty students stood by and did nothing to help him. After working with the police department on this incident, Hey U.G.L.Y. learned that unless there are witnesses or video footage, not much can be done by the police or school administration.  Most students don’t intercede or report bullying because they are afraid the bully will come after them. Hey U.G.L.Y.’s Bullying Bystanders Unite campaign hopes to change that by helping youth see that reporting could help save a life. They also stress that reporting can be done anonymously as seen in the safety tips on www.bullyingbystandersunite.org.