My nonviolent action
For my intervention, I identified the issue of homelessness in the Chicago area. There are three types of violence that are most commonly know. The first is structural; next is direct, and the last is cultural. I believe that homelessness can ultimately fall under all three, but for the sake of the assignment, I would say that it falls under cultural and structural violence. I say that it goes with cultural violence because a lot of cases of homelessness start with the discrimination of a certain people; Discrimination against the Jews, Blacks, Mexicans, Gays, Trans and other races and genders. This discrimination can make these people homeless because that could prevent them from getting loans for a house or applying for a spot in a homeless shelter. According to Forbes magazine, in 2016 nearly 21% of black applicants were denied a conventional loan while 15.5% of hispanic applicants were denied a conventional loan. Homelessness also fits with structural violence because institution and big corporations are raising mortgages for the house or taking more tax money than needed. Using the Iceberg method of analysis I found that there are many reasons for homelessness that are not thought of. At the top of the iceberg would be the things that are most see, like not paying rent or mortgage. But under the popular opinion are the more sophisticated causes, The increase in house and apartment prices and other reasons as well. The National Coalition for the Homeless has a website that said “A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness. Recently, foreclosures have also increased the number of people who experience homelessness.”
There are many organization that focus on helping the homeless, but one really stuck out to me. The name of this organization is The National Coalition For The Homeless. NCH started thirty years ago and since then, their views and ideals have remained the same. They focus on tackling the issue of homelessness nonviolently. According to their website, their mission is “to prevent and end homelessness while ensuring the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness are met and their civil rights are protected.” They wanted to ensure that they were not only providing homes for these people, but they were doing more for the homeless. To help achieve this, they have previously homeless people in their staff.
For my intervention, I handed out bags full of food to homeless people that I saw on the route to my mother’s job. This action relates to all four of Gandhi's principles. It relates to sarvodaya, which means the uplift of all because I am giving people that have pretty much lost hope of survival hope and knowledge that there are people out here that care about what happens to them. Just by doing that their spirits and physical well beings have been lifted.
Overall, I think that this project was an intense one. It was not easy, but there were so many factors and things to consider while conducting it. I feel that I did a lot less than I could have in the alloted time. The bags were a good idea, but they could have contained more things. I mainly had food, but I could’ve also put deodorant, soap, a wash cloth, wipes, and maybe some hand warmers. I think that anyone can do this project and better than I did. I encourage everyone to do some type of nonviolent action that corresponds with a certain issue.
Work Cited:
“Homelessness in America.” National Coalition for the Homeless, nationalhomeless.org/about-homelessness/.
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