I have an ethnic name that doesn't fit well with the English language, and nobody can pronounce it properly unless I teach them. Even then, it takes genuine effort and practice. It comes from a pretty old language.

I would eat certain foods and wear certain clothes to school, and the other kids around me would pick on me for it. They'd laugh whenever the teacher tried to pronounce my name, every single morning. She eventually just started skipping over me to save time. It ended up causing some mental health issues and made me hate my identity.

I was bullied to the point of changing my name. I recently changed it back to my original one after encouragement from loved ones, though.

However, the definition of racism confuses me. I keep seeing that it counts as racism if someone is discriminated against based on their race or ethnicity. However, a close friend of mine, who is also white, told me that what I experienced wasn't that bad compared to what POC experience and that I was still benefitting from the system as a child due to my whiteness, so I wasn't allowed to call it racism.

What exactly is the right answer? Was what I experienced an instance of racism? Please be nice. I just want to understand.

If there are any POC here who could/want to weigh in too, that would be amazing. I'm not asking for personal political opinions, either, though. I would just like multiple perspectives.