Today, amid the catastrophic suffering in Palestine, I’d like to focus my lens on Palestine’s refugees, on the media reportage that tells their stories, and on the embodied reactions we have to them.
Thank you! Reading your definition of refugee got me thinking that the reaction to homeless people locally is similar. Aren't they also refugees in a sense? Of the insane housing-cost crisis we are facing? I suppose the answer is the same, looking and learning. With loving kindness <3
Christine, it's lovely to witness your line of thinking here, and connecting the dots between different nodes of oppression. Feels like you're right that the experience of being unhoused can be similar in many ways, and people often respond to unhoused people with aversion and condescending pity, not seeing their humanity. The cause is a little different: Refugees have agency in that they are able (however dangerous) to flee their homeland. Being unhoused is rarely a choice, but something we're forced into. (By, as you say, the costs of housing, a lack of medical and mental health care, costs of obtaining health insurance or simply being uninsured, or for teens, unsafe situations at home.) And you're right about how important it is to observe from a place of equality. Keep making those connections across nodes of oppression!
Thank you bo. This so powerfully explains something I think we all know deep down as we consume media - dehumanization is such a dangerous form of manipulation (from the outside in) and equally dangerous form protection/aversion (from the inside out) I can’t think of a more important use of embodiment than practicing it to humanize one another. Thank you for always always always choosing humanity. 💚
Thank you! Reading your definition of refugee got me thinking that the reaction to homeless people locally is similar. Aren't they also refugees in a sense? Of the insane housing-cost crisis we are facing? I suppose the answer is the same, looking and learning. With loving kindness <3
Christine, it's lovely to witness your line of thinking here, and connecting the dots between different nodes of oppression. Feels like you're right that the experience of being unhoused can be similar in many ways, and people often respond to unhoused people with aversion and condescending pity, not seeing their humanity. The cause is a little different: Refugees have agency in that they are able (however dangerous) to flee their homeland. Being unhoused is rarely a choice, but something we're forced into. (By, as you say, the costs of housing, a lack of medical and mental health care, costs of obtaining health insurance or simply being uninsured, or for teens, unsafe situations at home.) And you're right about how important it is to observe from a place of equality. Keep making those connections across nodes of oppression!
Thank you bo. This so powerfully explains something I think we all know deep down as we consume media - dehumanization is such a dangerous form of manipulation (from the outside in) and equally dangerous form protection/aversion (from the inside out) I can’t think of a more important use of embodiment than practicing it to humanize one another. Thank you for always always always choosing humanity. 💚
Kath, Your reflections always offer me food for thought. I love the notion of practicing humanization, and doing so through embodiment. Thank you! 💚