Overheard an older lady saying she doesn't feel like she should have to give charity to poor people who aren't working for it, and thought "wtf does how you FEEL have to do with it?"
It's time to rethink conceptualizing caring for the poor as "charity." (Thread.)
It's time to rethink conceptualizing caring for the poor as "charity." (Thread.)
I think about this one a LOT, especially every time I hear the conservative talking points about how we don't need government "entitlement" programs because caring for the poor should be the business of churches and private charities.
I think about this one a LOT because it's a good example of how language frames how we think. And the words "charity" and "caring" are a problem, here.
The concept of "charity" as it's come into our modern society has Christian origins. And it's a very beautiful concept. You're moved by love to give to your fellow humans. They are dear to you. 
In Judaism, the equivalent is tzedakah. (Literally, justice.) It's not as moving a concept--there's no magnanimity, no noble and beautiful movement of the spirit powered by love of fellow humans. Just obligation to right a wrong.
And the framing, here, I think is important. Charity puts the focus on you as giver, your goodness, your feelings, (as does the idea of "caring for the poor" -- the poor, there, are a category of people separate from you). It's you going above and beyond because you're loving.
The moment, however, that you switch to framing it as justice, the focus is off you--and off poor people as a category--and onto the PROBLEM. It is unjust that people are in a position where they don't have their needs met.
And instead of the question facing you being, "do you feel like engaging in a noble expression of love for fellow humans?" it becomes, "are you going to stand there and do nothing in the face of this problem?"
And look, I wish we could be a society where we didn't NEED mandatory giving or government programs because OUR NEIGHBORS WEREN'T FUCKING STARVING AND UNABLE TO GET HEALTH CARE. But we're not.
And the fact that, in all of this abundance, we still have people in our own backyards who don't have their basic needs met? Clearly relying on the goodness of people's hearts to give through churches and private charities isn't working.
If it were, no one would be going hungry. We can afford to feed everyone and THEN some.
And when there is a widescale injustice in your midst, you use every available means to fix it.
