"When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatise those who let people die, not those who struggle to live." - Sarah Kendzior
Dehumanization is being guilty of stigmatizing those subject to poverty. Dehumanization is rushing past someone living on the streets, so you don’t have to extend a helping hand. Dehumanization is picturing that person as their environment. Dehumanization is the lack of realization that the person you passed saved our country and risked their life. Dehumanization is not realizing the old man has grandchildren that aren’t aware he is on the streets. Dehumanization is believing wealth is based on merit. Dehumanization is stigmatizing those who struggle to live. If you have ever done any of these things, you are participating in dehumanization. Here today I ask that instead of dehumanizing another human being you stigmatize those who let people die from poverty.
A stance is needed to humanize a group of individuals that are subject to the harsh environment that you can avoid by closing your front door. When you lock yourself out of your home or car a surge of fear runs through your veins. You become engulfed by the idea that there is no access to shelter. Picture yourself locked out of your car and your trusty umbrella is in the backseat, it starts to pour down from the sky. Shivering you wonder when the cold rain will stop. Eventually a family member comes to your car with a spare key and dry clothes, but remember someone that is homeless does not have that advantage. Their shivering does not stop until the sun comes out. Do you remember the snowpocalypse? People were stranded in their cars without proper clothing or food. If you were one of those unfortunate people you may reflect back on that time with fear. Someone that is homeless constantly feels the fear you experienced on one cold day. Being able to close out the homeless is easy when Mayor Kasim Reed enacts policies to clean up the streets of Atlanta. Mayor Reed I ask that you remember, “poverty is neither a crime or a character flaw” (Sarah Kendzior). Mayor Kasim Reed has taken it upon himself to create an environment that views homeless individuals worse than a stray dog, because he has enacted a law where it is illegal to so much as give food to another human being on the streets. Mind you it is not illegal to feed a stray dog. The lack of consideration for the homeless is equivalent to that of Atlanta’s pollution. Imagine another human being valued as little as pollution. He has created an anti-camping law that prevents the homeless from being able to find a place to rest. In the city of Atlanta there is 6,664 people living on the streets according to a Census by Metro Atlanta. What would you do if your loved one was forced out of their home? Would you turn a blind eye? The answer is a simple one, and it is a no, but what happens when you turn a blind eye to someone else's loved one on the streets? There is a need for the policies of Mayor Kasim Reed to be struck down along with a restructuring of homeless programs. A program, Housing First, established to provide housing for the chronically homeless is needed in a city like Atlanta that tries to ignore the humans living on its streets day in and day out. Housing First provides a safe place for those in need of a roof over their head. The goal of the program is to acclimate those use to being on the streets to a home life again. When looking at the numbers, eighty percent of those in the program were able to provide for themselves. Don't allow Atlanta to become like Nashville, where the homeless were pushed out of the city and forced to create their town outside of the city.
Heart of Atlanta, an organization, dedicated to sharing the stories of the voiceless through social media, did a piece on a man named Carl. Carl at the prime age of fifty-four years old found himself below the Grady Hospital Bridge. Let’s hear from someone that has experienced dehumanization first hand
"I was born and raised in Atlanta; I’ve lived here my whole life. My trade is in construction. Before the recession hit, my work was in demand. Now I'm lucky to find even a couple of jobs here and there. Even though I'm trying to find a job--it's difficult. I’ve been on the streets for a year now. I want the younger generation to know that they need to get a good education. The one thing I wish for? To be invisible so that people walking by can't see me like this."
A commenter on Carl’s story Bambi Delaney, shared her experience to show that becoming homeless can happen to you even if there are check marks in the boxes on how to have a successful life. She had an education and a family. This is her story of being dehumanized.
Carl...I know you can't hear me...you probably will never read this but unfortunately even a fantastic education can't keep you off the streets...a couple of years ago between breasts cancer and a lot of injuries I was not capable of working in my field or just working enough to support myself and my son's dropped me off on a corner in the middle of Atlanta in the rain. I have been attempting to survive since then.
She had an education something society constantly tells us we will be set if we go to school, and she had a family that would be expected to be her safe guard from the streets. Yet, she still found herself experiencing bad luck. Dehumanization is the actions of her sons that bought into the “ideologies that justify punishing the sick and the poor.” Dehumanization is passing Bambi on the streets and assuming she has bad character. In reality there is no safe guard from the streets, but luck that has prevented you from finding your way there as of to date.
It is time for you to take a stand and ask for things to be changed. Your voice can help the voiceless by advocating for Housing First. Atlanta is in need of a shelter that is not torn down, because of health code violations. It is in need of helping those who cannot get off of the deadly streets. Remember that the person you pass is someone's grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, aunt, uncle, ultimately that is a person's loved one. One day it could be you or a family member on the streets so keep in mind the importance of extending a helping hand because you never know what might happen.
