SNWJ: Those People Are My People

Those People Are My People

John Paul Derryberry

I was chatting with a group of people about the work I do with the homeless. And, the worst term possible came out of the guests' mouths. Why do we want "those people," around? It's not the first time I have heard this term. When I worked with abused teens who were aggressive, there was staff that referred to them as those people. When I worked with dependent adults, I witnessed people move completely to another side of the restaurant to avoid them. Those People impying they are seperate from us, that we are so different we could not find common ground with them. 

It's a dismissive term, it's a term as old as time, and for myriad reasons, it seems to be en vogue again. We are labeling groups of people and use of that term, "those people," means to demean them as lower than you.  And for some reason, we are wired to place our selves above others. We look down at those who are different, those who look different, act different, and think different. 

It's a shallow path some take to make their own lives more valuable and to have a greater purpose. 

Our culture has deteriorated again to where we measure ourselves by the haves and the have-nots. We find our value by looking at someone else and saying, I'm at least better than them. The question I have always had is, why? Why do we feel the need to be better than others? I do not have an answer to this question. Some might think it's simple, while others might think it's complicated. All I know is, I have enriched my life greatly by hanging out with "those people" for the last 15 years.  I have transformed through the years because of  lessons those people taught me. Those people are now and forever my people. 

I have had the pleasure of watching people succeed when all of society has told them they should give up. I have watched them serve up compassion to the same people who labeled them. I have seen them discover levels of courage that the "non-those-people" could only dream of summoning. If you asked me what the world could use more of, it would be the people labeled "those people,"  finding their way into leadership roles in every community.  The world would be a more inclusive space because they would lead by making all people where people