today i experienced something that i’m sure a lot of my homeless friends (and people of the lower working class) experience on a daily basis.

this morning a gentleman came into the house early for cafe. he ended up sitting inside the house for about an hour while we were finishing setup. during this time, the gentleman saw me doing a variety of jobs around the house to get ready. cafe started up and he came in, sat down and ate. i happened to be washing the dishes when he finished eating. he brought his dishes into the kitchen, shoved them into my hands and said “here ya go, dishwasher.”

i lost it.

i haven’t felt so infuriated in a very long time. i could not believe that this guy, who had seen me around for at least the last two hours, had the audacity to call me ‘dishwasher’ like it was my God-given name. i was so angry i had to leave the kitchen.

and then it hit me. the working people whom we serve at the house on a regular basis are probably treated like this almost every day of their lives. i know for a fact that some employers treat day laborers as just that: a source of (cheap) labor for a day. they often have no human identity or dignity to the employer. having my identity (through someone else’s perspective) defined by the task i’m currently doing is a terribly degrading thing and i cannot fathom the strength it must take to go to work day after day and be subjected to that type of treatment.

i am continually having my eyes opened.