A Trashed Hotel Exemplifies Failed Social Attitudes
Many homeless individuals in Minneapolis were given shelter at the Midtown Sheraton hotel during the riots. At first, volunteers worked to raise enough money to rent 14 rooms. But when additional folks without a home kept coming, the owner of the hotel couldn't turn them away. Almost overnight, the whole building (136 rooms) was converted into a shelter.
And almost as quickly, volunteers lost control.
Open drug use was as rampant as the vandalism. By the time the management company filed eviction notices just days later, the building was trashed. See these screenshots from a video an acquaintance captured.
In the comments of this video, one white man credited this as the result of "the harm privilege causes."
He's got it backwards.
And this backwards thinking is only causing more harm.
Instead of helping people up, his focus is on the need to pull others down (those privileged like himself). He's made this about himself--his guilt--which impedes effective work helping others. The overall result of this prominent way of thinking is that those who are down-and-out languish--and then they do indeed end up pulling the whole community down.
This hotel is a perfect example.
My acquaintance captured this video because he lives nearby and was angered by boys on the hotel roof, throwing rocks into other buildings' windows.
This hotel incident is just one facet of a longer piece I'm writing that overviews this entire situation Minneapolis in currently in. Stay tuned.