Stereotype, an often untrue and unfair persona held by many people about all people with particular characteristics. Today we will investigate how dangerous and ineffective this behavior is when considering the homeless and attempting to help them. The shelters function on this error and many on left to suffer, and even on the streets, unacceptable. It is like saying all people with freckles should not wear sunglasses, and because a few people believe it, they can no longer buy sunglasses. Yes, quite dumb sounding, but stereotyping the homeless as bums, addicts, lazy, derelicts, and the like is just the same.
Simply Stereotyped, What Good are They Here
Greetings my name is Howard, I attended and graduated college, I held a job for years, I helped raise a family, I worked at putting away money for a rainy day and did all that society says for us to do to be successful, but for me it did not work. Let’s see, I was hit by a car, medical bills, my wife and children were killed in an accident, grief, I served my country and came home damaged in unseen ways, my spouse beat me repeatedly, domestic violence, I was injured on the job, disabled, I aged out of the foster system, no job skills, I grew up in an abusive home environment, dysfunctional lifestyle, many paths to homelessness.
First, do y’all know what that big fancy word means, well here, it means widely held fixed or oversimplified idea of a particular type of person. Yea, chew on that! What all that means is this, you all see one homeless doing one thing that may not be socially right and you immediately put that widely held fixed idea of a particular type of person on us all, aka the homeless ones. And, yes all humans use stereotypes, but you guys, toward the homeless, A+ 100!
Somehow when the problems or situations became too much and life took me out of the normal daily course of life, I was immediately stereotyped as a certain type of person. I was put into the group of alcoholics and drug dependents ones, those that do exist on the streets but are not the majority. I was told I was lazy and that homelessness was a choice that I made. Person after person said that if I just tried a little harder, worked a little more, applied a little more effort I could end this cycle on my own, but who is hiring me, who is feeding me, who is willing to allow me to get some restful sleep???
See the quickly applied stereotypes do this one thing only, they relieve the discomfort that you feel when you see me and the result of inability or unwillingness to fix the problem, but the stereotypes do not help me. When I have stereotypes, I have been hindered, because I have been labeled and when labeled then help is even harder to find because I must shake off the label first then try and get the needed help, understand? We all stereotype all the time, she is too short, he is to slow, he is so overweight, this one is to this or to that, or this one is that these are all harmful stereotypes and stop the flow of potential help.
I am Howard, I am homeless, I am hungry, I want a job, I would love a hot shower and a warm safe bed, what stereotypes would you like to apply? Or would like to try and help me instead? With this response that I just released, you are not seeing me as Howard, you are seeing me as cynical and mean, making what you call demands and yet not willing to work for them. Out here life and death are but a moment separated from one another, and this mess of stereotyping is for another s/ieason, another place, we just need help, real help. But am I betting you don’t know or want to know my story and why I am not working and can’t work at present. See how dangerous stereotypes can be, they close the door to all solutions!
Will You Continue to Label Us Falsely
OR
Will You Simply Listen, Speak and Help
