Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Prejudices Homelessness

There are many miss conceptions as to what homeless people are. As a sub group, homeless people are victims of discrimination. The main ones are that, it's their fault if they are in that situation, they are not educated, they dont wash themeselves and that they are all alcoholics. When people walk by a homeless person they tend to think, "get a job". But imagine how hard it is to find a job when homeless. You don't have a car, you don't have a computer to write a CV and then, how are you going to dress for the interview? And what will you tell the interviewer when he asks about your background. Maybe it is possible to get a job, but infront of that wall, I can understand why many of them don't even try.

4 comments:

  1. It is true that homeless are affected by prejudices. I think that we cannot understand what these person are living, without having talking to them. A few weeks ago I saw on tv a show where a celebrity went spending a night with an homeless person. I was really surprise because it actually desmistified many prejudices. This guy was homeless since many years, and it was is choice of life. He has not the profil of the stereotype homeless!
    It should be interesting for you guys to look at this video (I don't know if it's available online...) and maybe to take info from it. The tv show is ''Testé sur des humains'' a TVA. The documentary was done with Georges Laraque

    Caroline

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  2. After made my intergrative project on homelessness in Sherbrooke, I can say that it is true how many people have prejudice about homeless people. The society is not inform about what those people, who live on the street, experiment when they were young. The principal causes are divorce, sexually abuse when they were young, depression, mental health problems etc. they are all thing that did not make their life easy to go through. Those people who live on the street need help to find resources that can change their life.

    Arianne

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  3. When people are young no one aspires to be a homeless person. However, it is a reality in our society that we should not ignore. Like Arianne said there are many factors that lead to homelessness divorce, seucal abuse, mental health issues. I think sometimes it is simply easier to judge than think of a solution to help. Also I thnk people don't think of the possible factors that lead to these people being homeless, I'm sure it wasn't their first choice! I actually feel sorry for homeless people because of the factors that lead them to their unfortunate lifestyle and on top of it the stigma that society thinks of them,
    P.Paradis

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  4. I agree with everything that the others have said. I know many people, even today in a society where knowledge is at our fingertips and we can inform ourselves, who still have these stereotypes that they prescribe to. I have a hard time understanding how people can go around making assumptions about other people and refusing to open their eyes and inform themselves.

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