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A lack of understanding of gender or racial issues does not make a person sexist or racist, but it does increase opportunities for the presence of gender and racial bias. For this reason, there are diversity trainings in the workplace; and while racial and sexual discrimination certainly do exist, it is not socially or culturally acceptable in most public environments to be outwardly discriminatory. However, this is not the case with class issues. A lack of understanding of the causes and conditions surrounding homelessness, for example, does not make a person classist, but the fear and strong value judgements that people experience when encountering homeless people leans heavily towards being a class issue in the same way that fearing people of color is an expression of the very root of racism.

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Sure, our socioeconomic backgrounds impact our world view; and participating in activities that are compatible with our income and interests makes sense. Differences in what we call class are a reality, however, we seem to draw a line when it comes to extreme poverty in the US. We live in a culture that criminalizes homelessness and drug addiction instead of providing adequate prevention and treatment programs for our country's growing number of people living in poverty. Additionally, health care options for people with mental illness are limited, causing people with schizophrenia and other debilitating disorders to live on the street instead of getting the help that they need. These human rights issues that should be of paramount importance to all of us, have become instead, glaring evidence of how we abuse and discriminate against people who live in poverty.

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The obscene lack of care for homeless people from state and federal policy makers and local law enforcement agencies is simply unacceptable. Sit-lie ordinances in Portland and other cities that force people to wander through the city during the day and at night prevent them from sleeping so that the rest of us don't have to witness their demonstration of human suffering. These laws, passed under the pretense of protecting local businesses, are cruel and make being homeless a crime in addition to being a living hell for people who deserve to be treated with dignity simple because they are people. Forcing this problem from view is not a socially responsible approach to the issue, nor is it even close to offering a solution.

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Acknowledging that homelessness is a social problem correlated with blaming and criminalizing people with limited resources is a step towards intentionally increasing our compassion for people we encounter who ask us for a few bucks or sleep on our public streets. Our policies, attitudes, and awareness of what contributes to economic inequality in the United States are what make a significant impact on the problem of homelessness. Our negative value judgements directed towards people living in poverty are fear based and will only serve to alienate us from our own humanity.