thank you thank you thank you thank you!
I'm just now beginning to understand how my middle class upbringing: manners, opening doors, offering seats, not cursing or spitting (or, for women, smoking) in public, etc. no longer apply and make me appear "uppity" to "authorities" and get me the accusation, "you think you're better than us" from other poor people.
Since I moved to this neighborhood from the War Zone, I am SO surprised how deferential and polite the police are to me! I live on an alley. The bldg. at the end of the alley is "bachelor" apartments, supposedly for students. The place is infested with crack and whores. I've been attacked repeatedly, which I'm used to.
What I'm NOT used to is having the police INVESTIGATE the bldg. in question, and call me, "ma'am" when I'm out watering my garden in the empty lot between my bldg. and the problematic one! The police actually offer me their business cards here!
In the War Zone, they'd actually cover their badges, so I couldn't identify them to complain of their abusiveness and harrassment. I would call for assistance, when being robbed or threatened. The police attitude was, anybody living in the War Zone is either: criminal, crazy or stupid and deserves whatever the cops hand out!
You're really helping me clarify some stuff I just couldn't put my finger on before joining this list!
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." ~~~~~ Dom Helder Camara poverty politics homelessness justice disability accessability prejudice tolerance addiction liberation ignorance resourcefulness illiteracy education abuse struggle hate love depression celebration disease health greed generosity
Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela
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