Our Holiday's are Racist - Lets talk homelessness.

For me holidays bring on a special reminder of racism and colonisation. Part of this stems from the never ending shock of ‘why does everything have to shut for a Christian holiday and not one of any other religion ever?’ and part of it comes from the obligatory family dinner at my nice middle class white childhood home.

 

Dinner with the family is like a spinning wheel of chance. Which topic will break the pleasant festivities and launch the family into a heated political debate, the kind which means you avoid one another until the next important date on the (colonised) calendar year.

Well this Easter, the topic that got us all fired up wasn’t the flag, wasn’t Donald Trump or The Bachelor NZ this year it was homelessness. Considering, it wasn’t even too bad. But it definitely left me thinking about the wider systematic issues and racisms towards homelessness in New Zealand.

Did you know that our government classifies homelessness as simply not having a house?

Seriously. That's it. Even America recognizes homelessness as a combination of social issues and has better policies surrounding that than we do.

We also only count homeless people by walking down the streets at night counting people. So that ignores people who are couch surfing, living in cars, or otherwise not immediately visible to a government employee walking down queen st. This means that most of our government lead statistics and studies on homelessness are inaccurate and missing half of the problem.

Whats more, homeless people do not get to vote as you need a valid mailing address. This makes them unable to participate in the 'democracy' that is what supposedly makes our society fair, equal and human. The people who need the most support from the government, don't even get a say in who the government is.

You are more likely to be homeless if you are Maori, Pacific, other POC, Queer or Trans, however this two is not addressed by our media, government or general population.  Like with 'post racial' racism in the education system, the 'equal' lens sees homelessness as an individual problem, something that just 'happens' to some people (probably through some failure of their own). This equalizing veiw helps to create idea that homelessness is simply 'lacking a house' when really it is a product of racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist issues in our society.

So happy easter everyone. Keep fighting the good fight, keep arguing with your parents, and next time you subconsciously walk further away while passing a homeless person on the street ask yourself why it is you're doing so.