So disappointed that this is how some activists in our community choose to engage their activism. | In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost latimes.com/local/lanow/la…
Many of these anti-homeless activists are middle-class and upper-middle-class East Asian Americans. Frustrating to see a lack of self-reflection on that class privilege.
Also, disappointed in the failure to interrogate the likely anti-blackness in this anti-homeless campaign: nearly 40% of LA county’s homeless population are Black. latimes.com/projects/la-me…
So damaging that these activists have internalized the Rightwing anti-poor message that poor people are disdainful and gross, and that poverty is the fault of the poor. We should hold ourselves to a better moral standard than that.
One of the first lessons I learned about politics as a high school student was about poverty. Someone who worked with our city’s homeless population came to give a workshop about poverty.
I remember her challenging us to picture what it would be like to experience a catastrophic emergency — a sick loved one, a sudden lay-off — and how that might cause a rapid domino effect towards losing one’s job and home.
I also remember her asking us to picture ourselves as homeless, with food and shelter insecurity and without a permanent address. How, she asked us, were we supposed to get a job?
What address do we put down on our resumes? What phone number do we use if we receive an interview offer? How do we get the clothes and clean ourselves up for an interview? Where do we put our stuff while we are interviewing?
The point of the exercise was simple, and it stuck with me for life: It’s very easy to become homeless, and very hard to no longer be homeless. Also, homeless people are just like everyone else, except something has happened in their lives that has caused them to become homeless
Homeless people don’t need to be preached to, or judged, or swept under the rug, or given “tough love” measures to stop some sort of bad habits keeping them poor. They need relief — support and help to stabilize their food and shelter needs, and a few basic opportunities.
In other words, they need what all of us need: to be treated like we’re human.
This campaign to treat homeless people like human trash is disgusting, immoral, and embarrassing. It is also exactly what not to do to address homelessness.
This campaign to treat homeless people like human trash is disgusting, immoral, and embarrassing. It is also exactly what not to do to address homelessness.
Asian American progressives: I hope we can use this as a call to rally on behalf of support services for our homeless neighbors. We should be fighting as a community to help homeless people, not turn them away.
