National Public Radio's Ina Jaffe reported from Central Los Angeles recently, vividly underscoring the tragedy that is Skid Row. Those of us who have walked or driven by the area of South Central and Sixth Street know that hundreds of American men, women and children continue to live in woeful, wretched conditions associated more with Lagos, Manila or Mexico City.
LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry is to be commended for her advocacy of the homeless. We need more people in leadership positions who share her concern. This comes despite the fact that she and her estranged husband owe the Federal government nearly $300,000 in back taxes. However, Perry makes a troubling rhetorical error when she says that the mostly African-American homeless in Skid Row are confronting "a form of genocide." Wrong.
Perry's sloppy, overinflated language hurts both the homeless she is trying to protect as well as the victims of real genocide. Yes, the situation in LA's Skid Row is tragic, deplorable and absolutely unacceptable. However, it cannot be presented as a deliberate and systematic attempt to exterminate a people. One need only to look at Turkey and the Armenians, the Nazis and the Jews, the Tutsi and Hutu of Rwanda as well as today's tragedy in Darfur to understand the true nature of a systematic eradication undertaken for political purposes. Perry was trying to make a point, but her overreaching hyperbole only compels greater indifference to victims of homelessness and genocide alike.
LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry is to be commended for her advocacy of the homeless. We need more people in leadership positions who share her concern. This comes despite the fact that she and her estranged husband owe the Federal government nearly $300,000 in back taxes. However, Perry makes a troubling rhetorical error when she says that the mostly African-American homeless in Skid Row are confronting "a form of genocide." Wrong.
Perry's sloppy, overinflated language hurts both the homeless she is trying to protect as well as the victims of real genocide. Yes, the situation in LA's Skid Row is tragic, deplorable and absolutely unacceptable. However, it cannot be presented as a deliberate and systematic attempt to exterminate a people. One need only to look at Turkey and the Armenians, the Nazis and the Jews, the Tutsi and Hutu of Rwanda as well as today's tragedy in Darfur to understand the true nature of a systematic eradication undertaken for political purposes. Perry was trying to make a point, but her overreaching hyperbole only compels greater indifference to victims of homelessness and genocide alike.