Perceptions Are Vicious

His thick jacket covered his face. His overly stuffed backpack, which included all his important documents, was jammed firmly between his legs. He was trying to get a wink of sleep while riding on the noisy chaotic Red Line (train). He worried about how he was going to work in the morning with his continual lack of sleep. He was worried about getting robbed as he slept. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he heard and felt all the judgments from the commuters! No one knew his story, no one spoke to him, no one knew how hard he worked, and even though he covered his face he could feel the stares and glares! Every night he was called a lazy bum and other brutally insulting words. Occasionally he was spat upon and slapped. No one knew who he was, no one knew he worked over 40 hours a week, but so many thought it was their right to deem him unworthy and less than them! 

The difference between perceptions and reality can be as far apart as heaven and hell. Perceptions can do irreparable and irreversible damage. Perceptions can emphasize and exaggerate a lie. Perceptions can destroy the most innocent and righteous of us all while elevating the evilest and most corrupt of us all. Perceptions can distort and manipulate the truth in the most vicious ways!

Perceptions of those experiencing homelessness are some of the worse of all. Men are perceived as mooches, predators, addicts, unstable, bums, and threats. Women are perceived as whores, junkies, emotional, and welfare cheats. Teenagers and young adults are often viewed as rebellious or violent gangbanging thugs who should be feared. Though people often feel sorry for homeless children, their parents are often perceived as inept and cruel, and the kids are often bullied and ridiculed when their homeless status is revealed. 

Perceptions are vicious! Perceptions deny people the opportunity or chance to rise. Some even purposefully use perceptions to keep people down. Those experiencing homelessness are viewed as the "other", and therefore, people justify the jokes and the judgments they feel free to make. 

These false perceptions characterize an incredibly diverse group of people, united by the fact they don't have a home. Even though these harsh stereotypes are far from the truth, people love to make their sweeping judgments and cruel jokes. They are incredibly damaging, but people find it easier to live in these stereotypes than face reality. People don't want to admit that there isn't some awful thing that separates "them" from "us". People don't want to admit that the system is terribly broken and that with only a couple slight changes, they could easily be in the same situation!

Over my years of working at CCO, I've seen a few participants come in with the perception that they are superior to everyone else - they believe everyone else deserves their homelessness, but they don't! They try to impress us by saying something like, "I'm not like those guys". This obnoxious mentality also comes from family members' and friends who find it hard to face the reality that everyone who enters our doors is unique, but at the same time, they're no different from the person in the bed next to them. By living in this jaded perception of superiority, (that everyone else deserves their homelessness except me or mine), they often demand and think they deserve special favors or treatment, which doesn't happen! Homelessness is humbling, so living with others who are going through the same struggles, often causes these attitudes of superiority to change.

Part of my journey is being willing to sit down and get to know the individual staying in a shelter, living in a tent, or lying on the sidewalk. Coming into proximity with those suffering makes it possible to take away those barriers. When we do this, we get to meet some wonderful unique human beings. We find our perceptions challenged while simultaneously revealing some ugly truths about a world gone askew. Our perceptions of justice and equality will be challenged because our pride and otherness will be rocked to the core. In other words, it’s easier (and more comfortable) to stand at a distance, blame the victim, and shoot daggers at them, rather than develop a friendship and live in the ugly truth. 

On the other side, perceptions proclaim that certain leaders, law enforcement officers, and clergy are morally upright and anointed by God, and can, therefore, do no wrong, even though the reality of their lives is full of corruption, violence, and immorality. They say one thing yet do another, and their followers twist everything into their own form of tainted truth. While leaders get excused and justified through perceptions, the exact opposite happens to those who are poor. Imagine what our prisons would look like if these so-called “righteous” leaders were incarcerated like those who are poor, black, brown, and experiencing homelessness, our prisons would be stacked up even more atrociously than they are now! Perceptions ignite and fan the flame of mass incarceration. Bryan Stevenson writes, “we have a system of justice in [the US] that treats you much better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent”.

Veterans experiencing homelessness face a horrific contradiction, daily! - while being revered and honored in word, they are simultaneously mocked and shamed. The word “veteran” conjures up positive perceptions of sacrifice and dedication, but when it’s placed with another word, “homeless”, the positive is overpowered by the negative. Ask any homeless veteran how often they’ve been mocked, spat upon, assaulted, or called names on their own home soil. Ask how many have faced this ridicule and abuse by those sporting “support our troops” signs. I could name a few veterans I’ve spoken to with tears in their eyes as they’ve told me about the abuse they’ve suffered. 

Perceptions are vicious! I know someone who had a lady pull her dog away from him as he was lying on a park bench. She didn't do this out of respect for his personal space, she did this because she thought he was unclean and would contaminate her precious dog. She loudly proclaimed that he was a "disgusting homeless person" that will give her dog a disease! He reflected on how often he was treated as less than an animal when he was experiencing homelessness. On this particular day, he'd just finished worked a long shift and needed to lay his weary head, but even if he hadn't been working, no person deserves to be verbally assaulted this way. 

His story isn't unusual though. When I worked with those living in Uptown Tent City, you should have heard the attacks, assumptions, and accusations hurled their way. You should hear what they say about the residents of CCO while pretending to care - at meetings, on the internet, behind their backs, and to their faces! It is attacking someone at often the lowest and hardest point of their lives! It is bullying at its finest! It is wrong! It is vicious!

I admit! I have my own biases, my own perceptions! We all do! We all have to fight against these voices that tell us to believe and double-down on lies. We fight by getting to know our neighbors, especially those who’ve been trampled on and cast aside. If we let it go, perceptions will continue to endorse inequality and injustice. Perceptions keep people down, while simultaneously elevating the elite, creating a greater disparity! As perceptions create a gulf that is ever-widening, it is the truth that sets us free and steers us toward a more equal and just society. 

As usual, I turn my attention to the example of Jesus as the One to learn from and follow. 

• John the Baptist came to prepare the way by announcing that valleys would be filled, mountains made low, crooked paths made straight, and rough ways smooth. When they asked him to elaborate, he told them to give their extra clothes and food to those without, be fair, and not exploit the suffering. John made it clear that God wasn't happy with the disparity, the ax was at the root of the trees, and His followers need to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. By preparing the way, by showing generosity, by equalizing what's unequal and unfair, "all people will see God's salvation" (Luke 3)
• Jesus is the way, the One John was talking about. Both Jesus and John were executed by the State because they challenged the status quo. Jesus walked in truth and didn't allow perceptions to control him. He stayed in close proximity with those living on the margins, loving and elevating them while exposing and confronting the lies. Jesus stepped in a world where the ruling class, Pharisees and the wealthy used perceptions and their power to create mass hysteria, causing the poor and outsiders to suffer and think they were unworthy of God's love. Jesus sided with them and revolted against this trend, by calling the scribes and Pharisees "hypocrites, white-washed tombs, and blind guides". In the Kingdom of God, the worthless became worthy, the voiceless had a voice, and the "first shall be last, and the last, first". 
• The Apostles followed the way. In the early Church, property and possessions were sold and shared with those who had none. They were united and shared everything they had. Mountains were made low, while the valleys were being filled. Acts 2 and 4 tells us how there were no needy people among them, how it was a beautiful sight, and how the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved. 

Unfortunately, the Church, including myself, has failed to continue this tradition, when it should be leading the way. Perceptions have justified not sharing with the poor, locking people up, and excluding refugees. Perceptions have justified excessive force and racist policies instead of restorative justice and mercy. Perceptions are vicious! It's time to return to our roots, where widows and orphans are embraced, prisoners are visited, the hungry are fed, refugees are accepted, the sick are visited, and those experiencing homelessness find homes. (Matthew 25)

I have a goal of changing perceptions through telling stories of those who enter our shelter, who live on the streets, and ride the trains! Maybe, just maybe, through listening to the voices of others we’ll no longer see the “other”, but that "other" will now become a wonderfully unique person, who deserves the same love and forgiveness we think we deserve. Stories, and coming into contact with those who are ostracized and marginalized, our perceptions change and we start to see how wrong and vicious our judgments were. We live in a world that loves to judge and condemn on the basis of vicious perceptions, this needs to stop! Instead, we should be reversing that trend by talking with others, sitting with others, eating with others, and hugging others who aren't in our circles, and when we "love our neighbors" we'll start to see more healing, compassion, mercy, and generosity.