Story Time: Homelessness & Dignity Denied
Channel: 519lastuchiha
Date: 2018-04-05

I had an experience with an individual facing homelessness, poverty, and other systemic violence. Primarily, the institution whom we searched out to assist this person was judging them morally and by appearance and were refusing service/access to resources. After some careful urging we got the individual into the institution and got them some resources for the evening. 

However, this is a learning experience as we should never judge other people by our own morality or by appearance as this can become a means to deny their dignity, humanity, and freedom. Instead we should always strive to see ourselves in the other/another person and recognize we may not have access to their lived experiences, circumstances/environment, and other contexts which led to certain decisions or attitudes etc. At the end of the day we are all human beings and our common human condition is one of choice, and too one of solidarity. 

Our freedoms, humanity, and dignity rest with and are upheld by other people. As we encounter ourselves in the world - we encounters others and our definitions of self and our humanity lie in encounters with other people. This is what existentialists mean when we speak of inter-subjectivity.