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Homeless People Research Paper

1355 Words6 Pages

With the prevalence of media’s image of homeless people, everyday Americans have rationalized homeless people as lazy, unmotivated, and “grouchy” individuals. American television shows targeted to young children such as Sesame Street have incorporated stereotypical dialogue regarding homeless individuals such as “grouch”. Furthermore, politicians see homeless people as dead-end citizens that cannot be changed. Overall, the stereotypes regarding homeless people paint a picture of individuals as being hopeless, lazy, and incompetent members of society. The contributing factors for such stereotypes come from historical events that illustrate the origins of homelessness in America.
The number of homeless people is growing and many Americans are …show more content…

These African American slave workers at the time of 1865 were displaced from their current jobs and quickly became unemployed. Many of the wealthy southern landowners could not afford to pay their slaves a living wage (Williams 21). This caused an influx of African Americans to migrate to the north to seek employment and shelter (Williams 25). However, due to industrial revolution and arguably discrimination many of these African American were unable to find proper shelters and jobs to support their families. Many of such African Americans started to live on the streets and created “ghettos” which are still present today in parts of northern America like Harlem, Brooklyn, and Chicago (Williams 28). The outcome of homeless people due to the abolition of slavery created negativity. Many people saw and treated homeless African Americans as “third-rate citizens”. Soon this type of treatment led to segregation and Jim Crow laws being established (Williams 29). With the image of homeless people, being associated with slavery caused certain media stereotypes to depict and associate homeless people as being African

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