Sparkle (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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fandomhigh2018-01-18 11:31 am
myownface) wrote in fandomhigh2018-01-18 11:31 am
Entry tags:
Urban Survival - The Uglier Side of City Living, Thursday, Period 2
Okay, back in the classroom. Sparkle was only a little intimidated by the group of students he had this semester. Which was impressive, since it was half the size of the first group he'd taught this to, and even had one of the same students.
He was going to just run with it. Yeah.
"Okay," he said, "so, this week we're going to talk about the reasons people might end up homeless. Using, you know, facts and data, instead of that 'oh, he's just going to spend it on drugs' bullshit speculation that a lot of people throw around when they pass some panhandler on the side of the road, making me immediately want to smack them into next month. Maybe they are. I dunno. You dunno. But it always kind of feels like people say that sort of shit because it dehumanizes the person sitting in the gutter that little bit more. Makes it easy to pretend they aren't there."
Which, in this class, he was saying just as much to get students to stop it if they did as he was to brace them for overhearing that shit if they ever wound up in that situation.
"Reasons for homelessness vary from city to city," he noted. "Or, at least, the frequency of those reasons varies. But a quick list, from a survey taken in Vancouver, has, from most to least, poverty as the number one reason, with 85.6% of people surveyed claiming it as a factor. From there, the list names housing crisis as a factor, followed then by substance abuse, mental illness, medical needs - yes, even in Canada this shit happens, family or relationship breakdown, abuse or a lack of safety, or being a new immigrant with no real options. You can dig into any one of those categories from there and make subcategories for them, if you want to, or draw lines connecting one and the next. Reasons for poverty might include things like racism or transphobia making it nearly impossible for somebody to find work. Mental illness and abuse are often linked - often, it's important to note. Not always."
He paused. Was any of this relevant to this class? He didn't know. But the next part was sure as hell relevant to him.
"There are other factors to take in, still. Things like how, in America, while only five to ten percent of the total youth population identifies as LGBT - a difficult thing to take an accurate measurement of because of anything from it being unsafe to come out as queer to self discovery being a journey that can take years, up to forty percent of homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans. And out of those kids, family rejection and abuse are some of the top factors leading to them being on the streets."
Woo, he got through the hard part. Somebody give him a damn cookie.
"Last week, we also touched on personal rights and the importance of freedom," he went on. "Which bears elaborating here, too. There are a lot of factors that the people who are at the top of the food chain are going to use to keep other people down once they're at rock bottom. They'll point at things like race, disability, mental illness, gender, religion, sexual identity, and so on, and then use those things to justify to themselves that the people who are at the bottom deserve to be there. Once you can be identified as any one of those so-called undesirable things, things you have no control over and which shouldn't be factors that society uses to place value on another person, it gets a lot harder to keep your head above the water. There's active pressure from the people with money and security to keep you down, as somebody with neither, because for fucked-up, 'you aren't a white, straight, able-bodied Christian male' reasons, someone thinks you don't deserve it."
And shit, Sparkle had gotten off pretty light on that checklist. He smiled humorlessly, and then sighed and leaned back at a desk.
"I can't ask anyone to, like, come up with catch-all solutions to any of these problems here in class," he noted. "The fight for equality... basically anywhere... is always a long and hard-fought one that can't be remedied overnight. It should be remedied overnight, because that shit is bullshit, but that just... isn't how people work. And in order to address poverty as the number one issue leading to homelessness, half the battle is going to be running down that list and tackling those other factors, too. But, you know what? I'm gonna let you all give it a try, anyway."
He waved a hand.
"Anything I mentioned today. Throw rocks at it. Pick it apart. Try to figure out why it's a thing, or what people can do to make it less of a thing. Mental illness is on that list. So does society as a whole need to have a conversation about the stigmatization of things like depression and PTSD? What about the homeless queer kids? Or the abused? The ones in need of medical assistance who just can't find the care they need? Bounce it around. And keep an open mind when you do. Maybe you'll learn something. Hell, maybe I will."
He was going to just run with it. Yeah.
"Okay," he said, "so, this week we're going to talk about the reasons people might end up homeless. Using, you know, facts and data, instead of that 'oh, he's just going to spend it on drugs' bullshit speculation that a lot of people throw around when they pass some panhandler on the side of the road, making me immediately want to smack them into next month. Maybe they are. I dunno. You dunno. But it always kind of feels like people say that sort of shit because it dehumanizes the person sitting in the gutter that little bit more. Makes it easy to pretend they aren't there."
Which, in this class, he was saying just as much to get students to stop it if they did as he was to brace them for overhearing that shit if they ever wound up in that situation.
"Reasons for homelessness vary from city to city," he noted. "Or, at least, the frequency of those reasons varies. But a quick list, from a survey taken in Vancouver, has, from most to least, poverty as the number one reason, with 85.6% of people surveyed claiming it as a factor. From there, the list names housing crisis as a factor, followed then by substance abuse, mental illness, medical needs - yes, even in Canada this shit happens, family or relationship breakdown, abuse or a lack of safety, or being a new immigrant with no real options. You can dig into any one of those categories from there and make subcategories for them, if you want to, or draw lines connecting one and the next. Reasons for poverty might include things like racism or transphobia making it nearly impossible for somebody to find work. Mental illness and abuse are often linked - often, it's important to note. Not always."
He paused. Was any of this relevant to this class? He didn't know. But the next part was sure as hell relevant to him.
"There are other factors to take in, still. Things like how, in America, while only five to ten percent of the total youth population identifies as LGBT - a difficult thing to take an accurate measurement of because of anything from it being unsafe to come out as queer to self discovery being a journey that can take years, up to forty percent of homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans. And out of those kids, family rejection and abuse are some of the top factors leading to them being on the streets."
Woo, he got through the hard part. Somebody give him a damn cookie.
"Last week, we also touched on personal rights and the importance of freedom," he went on. "Which bears elaborating here, too. There are a lot of factors that the people who are at the top of the food chain are going to use to keep other people down once they're at rock bottom. They'll point at things like race, disability, mental illness, gender, religion, sexual identity, and so on, and then use those things to justify to themselves that the people who are at the bottom deserve to be there. Once you can be identified as any one of those so-called undesirable things, things you have no control over and which shouldn't be factors that society uses to place value on another person, it gets a lot harder to keep your head above the water. There's active pressure from the people with money and security to keep you down, as somebody with neither, because for fucked-up, 'you aren't a white, straight, able-bodied Christian male' reasons, someone thinks you don't deserve it."
And shit, Sparkle had gotten off pretty light on that checklist. He smiled humorlessly, and then sighed and leaned back at a desk.
"I can't ask anyone to, like, come up with catch-all solutions to any of these problems here in class," he noted. "The fight for equality... basically anywhere... is always a long and hard-fought one that can't be remedied overnight. It should be remedied overnight, because that shit is bullshit, but that just... isn't how people work. And in order to address poverty as the number one issue leading to homelessness, half the battle is going to be running down that list and tackling those other factors, too. But, you know what? I'm gonna let you all give it a try, anyway."
He waved a hand.
"Anything I mentioned today. Throw rocks at it. Pick it apart. Try to figure out why it's a thing, or what people can do to make it less of a thing. Mental illness is on that list. So does society as a whole need to have a conversation about the stigmatization of things like depression and PTSD? What about the homeless queer kids? Or the abused? The ones in need of medical assistance who just can't find the care they need? Bounce it around. And keep an open mind when you do. Maybe you'll learn something. Hell, maybe I will."
Re: Discuss!
Because that, at least, he felt confident about discussing.
"I mean, there's prejudice pretty much everyone on the planet," he added. "And laws kind of depend on where you are. But I don't think there's a single country on Earth where LGBT-plus people have the same rights as cisgendered straight people... That is, as people whose gender identity matches what they were assigned at birth, who feel attraction toward people of the opposite gender. Where I come from, Canada, we have a government that kind of seems to be trying. Like, a transgender person can have their gender identity put on official government identification. A same-sex couple can get married. But we still have a lot of work to do before we're really equal, you know? But there are other countries where what they view as deviation can get people thrown into prison or killed. Hell, even in countries that claim to have laws protecting us, we can still be killed. People will talk about it for twenty minutes as though they care, but that hate is still there. It's going to take a lot of work for it to go away."
Re: Discuss!
Not that the Radchaai had any right to be horrified.
"What is it you would like to talk about?"
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"About refugees, some more," he offered. Because if she'd seen them, maybe she'd have a few more insights. "I already covered trauma and language barriers and starting with absolutely nothing, but were there other things that they had to contend with that I missed? Prejudice is often one here, too, that people like to pretend isn't a problem, but it really, really is."
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And that was something the Radchaai was often guilty of, but they were definitely not alone.
"And it's easy for the privileged ones to blame their situation on their culture."
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"Yeah, the privileged ones have 'blaming people's situations on themselves' down to a fucking art. Doesn't matter who they are or where they came from, they'll find something. Anything to absolve them of any responsibility for the hurting of others. Anything to be able to get out of having to help fix it."
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Breq, or Justice of Toren, had never been much concerned with these things. She had noted them, of course, but it had never been part of her responsibilities. Making changes, generally, was a new interest, although she hadn't really considered homelessness as an important issue.
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She had met so many people like that during her long life, including most of her officers.
"What would you do if you cared very much about one who did?"
She was just curious to hear what Sparkle would answer. She herself had loved many of her captains who fit that description, officers from prestigious families. They weren't all bad, they just preferred not to see certain things.
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"Get my fucking heart broken, I guess."
That seemed to be how it always went, anyhow.
"I can't see things like that going on and not speak up. And people like that... they usually don't like listening to what I have to say."
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"I mean, it isn't easy, but change happens," he replied. "It takes a hell of a lot of work. People get hurt making it happen. But change isn't impossible."
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"Yeah, most of the time, those other methods are... cruel. Really cruel. Essentially making 'existing without a home' into a crime all on its own." He curled his lip a little. "Or even 'existing with a home, but not being good enough for it.'"
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"Something else you've seen, huh?"
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"I think I mentioned during introductions that there is no homelessness at the major space stations or planetside cities where I'm from, though. It's more of a problem in recently annexed places."
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It was a question that he really had to ask. Between his conversations with Breq that vaguely touched on her home and the conversation he'd had with Seivarden last weekend... there were a few things still fresh on his mind.
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It was hard not to notice Sparkle's opinion.
"Perhaps the price for the lack of homelessness in the more..." The Radchaai word here would be civilized, and she wasn't going to use that,..."prosperous places is dependent on places like that."
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"I suppose the more prosperous," yes, he noticed that pause, "places have to find a way to sustain housing for everybody somehow. What else do they get out of the annexations?"
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"The usual things. New planets with natural resources. Possibilities for social advancement for citizens. People, to some extent."
This wasn't really about homelessness now, was it?
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"Some extent?"
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