The Attitude of Solidarity with the Poor's Vision of a Just Society

A community organizer’s attitude of solidarity with the poor starts to show when she is confronted bythe realities in the community. The poor as a sector has a unique culture that is borne out of their deprivation and oppression. Some attitudes of poor communities are very humanizing, like the way they care for one another, their openness about their situation , their concern for others and a lot more of good traits. But there are also attitudes among poor communities that can really drain a young dreamer, like the tendency to be irresponsible or the tendency towards opportunism. The romantic youth who comes to a poor community with her idealism and passion may end up cynical if he doesn’t learn in time that the harsh realities of poverty give birth to opportunistic tendencies. But poor communities have a lot of laudable attitudes if only the young community organizer-on-training unlearn in time the biases that have seeped into her consciousness because of the programming of society that has been part of her growing up years.

Examples of an initial attitude of solidarity with the poor’s vision of a just society is being able to live in the poor’s environment without taking it against the poor. Some people with a mainstream lens view the untidy surroundings, the undesirable smell of crowds, the littered streets and a lot more of negative images as the result of laziness and the absence of concern for society. In one sweeping judgment, yes, it is very easy to judge the poor as deserving of the situation they are in. In fact, the reason why social movements are not always viewed with kindness by mainstream thinking is because the poor are measured by those who are economically better off in society with an indicator of behavior that is coming from the eyes of the “haves”and not from the eyes of the “have nots”. It is important for the young organizer-to-be to see the situation of the poor from the eyes of the poor. This is the first step to true solidarity with the poor’s vision of society.

It is very important for a potential community organizer to view the poor in relation to the unjust economic, political and cultural arrangement of society. The poor has been always viewed as lazy and lacking in ambition or drive all because the situation that they were in for a long time to the time hasn’t changed rapidly. Contrapose this with the situation of the wealthy. There’s no point in comparing because the poor will always pale in comparison to the “drive” and “ambition” of the wealthy .

The potential community organizer has a lot to learn in terms of attitude . Solidarity with the poor is more than being kind to the poor. The attitude should stem from a historical and structural perspective of society.