Labels, prejudices and stigma about homeless people
People experiencing homelessness, especially those living on the streets, are labeled as destitute, people of " bad character ," and are subjected to a significant number of prejudices such as: " they are on the streets because they don't want to work, " " people on the streets are alcoholics ," etc. In short, they have a social stigma simply because of their situation of living in public.
Our self-aware and linguistic structure could be understood as a reduction of complexity. To seek coherence and stability with our experience of the world and ourselves, we are compelled to reduce and simplify complexity through language and other expressive practices in order to understand the phenomena of the world. What we essentially do is a process of labeling that allows us to understand reality.
Language (through labels) allows us to assimilate certain characteristics and generate stereotypes (identify patterns, simplify reality). In this process, we humans come to believe these constructs and assimilate them as reality itself.
But the truth is, we can never have a direct approach to reality; we only have mediations through constructs, and that allows us to survive within our worldview. But it also leads us to errors because every label is limiting. A label is a summary that contains a certain meaning, but reality is always much broader.
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The labeling process is useful for defining how we behave with each other in order to be considered " normal. " Normality is a construct of group strength, allowing the group to identify itself. In our relationships with others, we often do this in opposition to them. We do everything possible to resemble the standard of normality. We have naturalized the labeling process.
There is a collective surveillance of what is " normal ," and when someone fails to conform, the " abnormal " emerges. This can lead to a prejudiced, irrational relationship with the other person because it establishes a new label (negative characteristics) that reduces the complexity of the prejudiced individual and reduces them to specific characteristics.
Many prejudices are directed at homeless people, stemming from fear and a lack of understanding of who they are and what their situation is. Fear because it reflects a situation any of us could face, and a lack of understanding because we don't know who they are or what causes their situation.
For Erving Goffman (Goffman, 1963), stigma is a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype.
The problem of stigma arises where there is a widespread expectation that those who belong to a given category must not only support a particular norm but also carry it out.
According to Gordon Allport (Allport, 1971), prejudice is a hostile or prejudiced attitude towards a person who belongs to a group, simply because he or she belongs to that group, assuming, therefore, that he or she possesses the qualities attributed to the group.
And Daniel Kahneman (Kahneman, 2011) describes two systems of thought that he calls the Fast Thinking System or Automatic System, called 1, and the Slow Thinking System or Effortful System, called 2.
In the first case, one has learned to make associations between ideas; one has also acquired skills such as interpreting and understanding nuances in social situations.
In contrast, the very varied operations of the other system of thought have one thing in common: they require attention and are disturbed when attention is diverted from them.
Both ways of thinking continually make suggestions to each other: impressions, intuitions, intentions, and sensations. If the system defined as the slow system approves of these suggestions, the impressions and intuitions become beliefs, and the impulses become voluntary actions.
However, fast thinking is biased, prone to systematic errors in specific circumstances. It responds to simpler questions than those posed and has little understanding of logic and statistics. Another limitation is that this type of thinking cannot be switched off.
When information is scarce, which is common, fast thinking operates like a machine for jumping to conclusions.
Throughout history, and even today, homeless people have been referred to in many different ways: beggars, vagrants, transients, indigents, road workers… all of these are inaccurate terms. These concepts emphasize a single, non-generalizable characteristic, attributed to a biased belief based on our preconceived notions about these individuals. This reduction of their situation leads us to label them, to establish negative prejudices about their way of life because it is different from our own, and to create a stigma that blames them and confines them to the excluded and invisible margins of society.
Literature
- Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity . Buenos Aires: Amorrortu.
- Allport, GW (1971). The Nature of Prejudice. Eudeba
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Debate
