Day Six

Today I was walking around Elm Park with some friends, and there was a homeless man sitting on a bench. Well, we assumed he was homeless, he was sitting with a carriage full of plastic bags, some that had cans, and some that held other things. I noticed as we got closer to approaching him and walking past him, my friends decided to take a little detour and go around him, without having to get too close. After I noticed this, I began to notice that many other people were going out of their way to avoid getting close to this homeless man. I thought that this was wrong, so I asked my friends why they avoided walking closer to the man. They explained to me that they were afraid he would attack us or try to steal from us, so I asked why they though this and none of them had an answer. They had natural prejudices against homeless people that had formed over time, and caused them to subconsciously avoid this man because somewhere in the back of their mind they assumed he was dangerous. Just to prove them wrong, I turned around and walked past him, and greeted him saying hello, he said hello back and told me to have a nice day and I told him to do the same. I then rejoined my friends. I explained to them that not all homeless people are dangerous and that they should not discriminate against people just because they are not fortunate enough to have money to provide for themselves. We do not know what peoples individual situations are, and we should not discriminate against them,especially for things that they cannot control.