Homelessness Is Rooted in Deep Structural Problems

To the editors:

I have never had a conversation with the women who sits on the steps of the Porcellian. I don't know her name, I don't know where she grew up, I don't know where she sleeps at night, I don't know what friends and family she has, I don't know what her health problems are, I don't know what her work history is like, or what options she has for supporting herself.

I do know that, as a homeless woman, she is more likely than not to have been a victim of sexual violence both at home and on the street, but that's just from statistics, not from any knowledge of her specific situation. Because I really don't know anything about this woman, I would never think to write an opinion piece condemning her as lazy, conniving, undeserving, and fat, because to do so would be an embarrassing display of my ignorance and mean-spiritedness. It's too bad that George Hicks does not have the same self-censoring mechanism.

I do not usually give change to panhandlers, not because I find them to be undeserving (who am I to make that judgement?), but because I think there are better ways to invest my resources. Hunger and homelessness are serious problems with deep structural roots that are not going to be resolved by flipping quarters into cups, and if by reaching into our pockets and dropping those few coins we feel satisfied with ourselves and our good deed for the day rather than brimming with rage that our society of such affluence does not provide the affordable housing, living wage jobs, and basic medical services that all people, both housed and unhoused, so desperately needed; if that smugness allows us to feel complacent in our sheltered, privileged bubble and gives us the audacity to blame the poor not only for their own condition, but for the corruption of our general values; then I beg Hicks, and others like him, to please keep hisspare change and his uneducated opinions to himself.

Rather than stigmatize the poor people with whom we share this city, use the tremendous potential and resources granted to you by your affiliation with this institution to effect real, structural change that will give people who are homeless the opportunities they need to construct productive, fulfilling lives for themselves.

Ari M. Lipman '00

Oct. 2, 1999

The writer is former Director of the University Lutheran Shelter.

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Hicks Ignorant of 'Fattism'

To the editors:

George Hicks makes a round of cruel and senseless comments about the homeless in Harvard Square. Beyond his ignorance on homelessness (which I won't address here), his contempt for obese people is downright disturbing. Hicks comfortably uses this woman's weight as a point of ridicule and a "fact" to disqualify her neediness. Hicks' snide confusion over an "obese beggar" demonstrates total ignorance about the nature of obesity and poverty. Hicks (an economics concentrator) is "missing something here." It's more expensive to be thin than fat in America today.

At McDonald's, two bucks can buy you two cheeseburgers, but it can't get you a calorie-conscious salad. Worse, Hicks doesn't even recognize the weightist prejudice he's expressing: "Incapacitated? Well, she can't really walk so well, but I don't really see that mild disability keeping her out of the job market. Discriminated against? No, nothing there, either." Fattism does keep people out of the job market. And it can make people miserable. Sadly enough, some people still think it's okay to ridicule fat people.

I can't forgive Hicks' inhumanity--whether he's talking about the situation of the homeless or the size of an individual. Maybe Hicks and other Harvard students who share his views should think a little more deeply.

Melina Shannon-DiPietro '00

Oct. 1, 1999