November 20th, 2012
My personal experience with houselessness started when I was 18 years old. I left home to live in the street, and I made up my mind I was going to survive no matter what. I would do what ever I have to do to make it. I used and abused whoever I had in order to make it. This was a lonely life because I did not trust no one but myself. I dealt with racism in my own race, with white people, and with the police.
I was in jail for a j-walking ticket. Police gave me a card—threw it on the ground and called me a nigger—and I wanted to whip their ass but I didn't.
I remember what my parent taught me and realize now this was not the way to success that I was hoping for. I am learning that there are good people in the world. I just have to surround myself with them and I realize that life is what you make of it. No more, no less.
This story was written by James, a poverty skolar from the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), for the Voices of Poverty Resist series. This series was launched out of a fellowship that Lisa received from the Marguerite Casey Foundation for journalism focused on poverty. Because Lisa leads with her indigenous values of inter-dependence she has created this collective journalism process where all of our voices in poverty are speaking for ourselves.