Just to be clear...Just being - Us

I do want to be clear that I am starting this project as part of a study for a graduate thesis, but also for my students: because I want to be clear about what I am teaching them (consciously or subconsciously); finally, I am doing this because I think it is time. There simply should not exist in the 21st Century the kind of poverty, homelessness, and need we see everyday around the world. The only way such atrocities can possibly continue is through an equally atrocious ambivalence on the part of those who have the power - that would be - us.

The only way to keep ignoring the obvious is to pretend it isn't there or to pretend there's nothing we can do about it. Either paradigm is criminal. We can only pretend the problem doesn't exist if we make those marginalized by it "Other" - other than human - other than someone, anyone, we need to be concerned with. Or, we can blame them for their own problems - "how can we help them, when they won't help themselves!?!" 

We can also turn them into a product or a mask to be put on and taken off as if they weren't quite real (I refer here back to the idea of the hip hop genre - of music, dress, etc - and the white penchant for appropriation); better yet, we can turn people into a cause to be contibuted to, in order allow ourselves to feel good about just being - us.