Demonization

     It's always easy to cast a group of people as something that they are not. It happens whenever we feel the need to validate our own view of life by casting people as evil. In wars, we often cast the opposing side as inhumane, reckless, and needlessly violent. Racism always involves the demonization of a certain race of people. In the instance of this specific video, we see the subset of homeless people being subjected to demonization by their fellow man.
     Ronald Davis makes a startling simple yet powerful statement in this video: "I'm not a bum, I'm a human being." When we just call people a bum, it implies all the negative things that go with that title, not taking into account the full story of that person. Ronald reminds the man who is interviewing him that he is indeed a human being, even almost reducing himself to tears recalling some of his experiences. He struggles daily with his homelessness, he has a history. He is more than just a wandering waste of space; he is a man with a story and emotions. He is a man capable of making profound statements even though he does not have a job. Ronald Davis reminds us all that our circumstances do not have to dictate the character of our person, and that by assuming that our circumstances do control us we allow ourselves to give into the temptation of categorizing people into stereotypical placements to fit our individual world views.
     The simple lesson to be learned from this video is this: look beyond the circumstance, and towards the individual. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that each man would be judged by the content of his character, not the circumstances he was born into (in his case darker skin). That dream can be realized by taking the time to see past the obscured field of this world, and into the nature of each person.