‘I am a good man, down on my luck.’

Why we ‘other’ society’s most vulnerable – and how to change the narrative.

—

I spot him first because of what he’s wearing. It’s July in Manchester, it’s maybe 20 degrees, yet he’s sporting a black jacket zipped to his chin and heavy cargo trousers. But it’s also because he’s kneeling, back ramrod-straight with thighs at a 90 degree angle to the ground. He’s clearly been sleeping rough; he looks tired and unshaven and his clothes are dirty.

In a city filled with sleeping bags in doorways – and they’re everywhere, I’ve been struck by it over the weekend – it’s an overt display of degradation. He keeps his eyes on the ground and holds a cardboard sign in his hands.

It reads: ‘I am a good man, down on my luck.’

I thought of those words again just a few weeks ago at a comms session with Liz Kearsley of Transform Justice, a national charity working for a ‘fair, human, open and effective justice system.’

‘When we talk about people who’ve been through the justice system, we tend to ‘other’ them,’ says Liz. ‘It’s easier if we think about them as being alien – people who’ve met with a set of extreme circumstances and repeatedly made bad choices. That way, there’s no chance we could fall into the same trap ourselves.’

She showed us a video of some vox pops – people standing on a sunny street and giving their views as to why some people ‘turn to crime’. Yes, she’s making a point on framing and yes, the interviewer is asking deliberately leading questions, but the responses are nevertheless shocking.

‘Bad decisions. Drugs, usually,’ says a man in a tweed jacket.

‘It’s social media, isn’t it? Now everyone can see what everyone else has and if they can’t afford it, they decide they’re having it anyway,’ says a mum with a baby on her hip.

‘They get in with a bad crowd and it all goes from there,’ says a woman in her 50s, shrugging.

Othering isn’t just an issue for people in the criminal justice system, though – it’s a problem facing all kinds of vulnerable groups: victims of abuse, people with drug and alcohol issues and, yes, people experiencing homelessness.

But it’s a problem that our language and broader messaging in the third sector can challenge. How? Liz went on to explain.

Firstly, by avoiding extreme and exclusively negative messages. Although this might seem counterintuitive – err, surely people need to know there’s a problem to motivate them to help? – there’s a lot to be said for avoiding crisis language. Too much of a bad thing triggers fatalism – think of the climate change inertia that exists in some quarters; that sense of ‘oh well, if it’s that bad, what can I do?’ Focus on solutions and positive transformations and answer the ‘what can I do?’ question for them.

Next, say no to stereotypes. A recent Crisis report found that the common public perception of a person experiencing homelessness fell into three narrow categories – an older man with substance abuse issues, a younger male running away from an unhappy home and a female fleeing domestic abuse. Stereotypes feed othering — if that’s what a homeless person looks like, that’ll never be me. They choose that life, that’s their look-out, yes it’s sad, but it’s nothing to do with me…

Finally, trigger useful beliefs. Reject all of the unhelpful stereotypes above and instead activate other, helpful beliefs: that homelessness is a result of complex, systemic issues; that no one truly chooses to become homeless; that we should have a social security system that prevents society’s most vulnerable from ending up on the streets and so on.

I remembered that sign – ‘I am a good man, down on my luck’ – because it did all of the above. It didn’t speak of catastrophe (‘down on my luck’) and it challenged the idea I’d casually accepted somewhere along the line that a homeless person, if not necessarily bad, must have made some bad choices. His words made me feel uncomfortable about a bias I’d never properly acknowledged and they repositioned us as equals. Highly effective, memorable campaigning in fewer than 10 words.

I hope he’s in a better place now.

—

Need help with avoiding othering in your messaging? Let’s talk.