Cultural Perception - The Homeless

For this assignment I decided to focus on the homeless people living in our country. This idea was sparked when I was driving through downtown Provo and saw a man standing on the corner of the sidewalk with a cardboard sign asking for change. I've realized that homeless people, and more particularly how they ended up in that situation and what they're doing now that they're in that situation, can oftentimes be a topic that people view with mixed attitudes. The single story that I want to discuss, however, is that these people have their own stories that attach value to them despite often being judged to the contrary.

The first artifact that came to mind on this point was the movie The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. In this film that's based on a true story, Jamie Foxx plays a impressively talented homeless man who performs street music on his cello for spare change. The story explores where the man was before he was homeless, the value and depth he still has despite living on the streets, and where he can end up despite his current difficult situation. Another artifact in the media is a song called "What It's Like" by Everlast. It's a sobering song with some content that's somewhat graphic, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend looking it up. The song tells different stories of individuals whose lives have become difficult, but the overall message of the song is that these people's lives have been ruined by others. It opens with the image of a homeless man begging for change on the side of the street. Another significant artifact I discovered was a campaign that showed homeless people holding cardboard signs with messages explaining what their lives used to be like before homelessness. The signs say things such as "I once had a scholarship to play baseball", "I've built robots", and "I'm recovering from open heart surgery" - to name a few.

All of these artifacts reminded me that oftentimes those we see begging for change or living on the streets are just as human as we are. I think we sometimes tend to believe a different story that these people are here for their own fault for choosing to turn to drugs or spend all of their money recklessly or whatever. And with this mentality, I find it more difficult to have compassion with them or offer them money. And of course, this other story has merit with some of the people out there, so my story that I'm focusing on can be limiting to some extent - however, even if people are out there for their own faults, this story that paints these people as having depth and value is a strong reminder that no individual should be judged or looked down upon. In conclusion, those we seem living on the streets are human like us and have worth and depth just like us.