Exploitation Enterprise

As I mentioned in my last post, lately I have been especially convicted regarding the plight of the poor. And though I don’t know what to do about it, this week I have seen examples of things NOT to do. As if being poor, homeless, and generally outcast wasn’t bad enough, what if they were exploited to make the rich even richer? Impossible you say? What else could they give? They have nothing after all. Well, leave it to pop culture to go where no one has or should go.

Let me sight the most egregious offender first – Tyra Banks. Some time ago for her show she dressed up in raggedy clothing and “played” homeless for a day. Her thinking was that she could sympathize more with the homeless if she was one for a day. Was she serious? Apparently, yes she was. She said that she had a newfound understanding of what the homeless go through…after one day in non-designer clothes without makeup (maybe) with the full understanding that she would return to her plush environ at the end of the taping.

As if that wasn’t enough, she continued the exploitation this week by whisking her “Next American Top Model” contestants to the streets and switching places with 3 “homeless” people (there is some doubt as to whether they were actually homeless people and not plants). In other words, the homeless girls got made up and decked out while the contestants had to look glamorous in less than ideal conditions (see picture below and the video recap here - its laughable if it weren't so sad). Which makes perfect sense, because we all know that models need to be able to adapt to any situation, including feigned poverty. Is anyone else repulsed by these sorts of actions? It is like a politician coming into the soup kitchen for a photo op just to convey the image that s/he is from the “salt of the earth.”



Then on Sunday, I was listening to some Christian music radio (which by now I should have learned my lesson). And who pops up? Audio Adrenaline. Not a huge fan, but I tolerated them – until that day. They have a new song out called “dirty” (you can listen here). Not to be confused with the remake of Christina Aguilara’s “Dirty”, the lyrics are as follows:

Tired of being clean. Sick of being proper
I want to live among the beggars and dig out in the dirt
step outside the walls we built to protect us
don't be afraid to get some mud on your face
come on come on everybody
come on come on and serve some one
Let's get dirty! let's get used,
no matter where you come from,
if your beaten up or bruised,
let's get foolish, let's get free,
free to be the one thing, you were meant to be,
let's get dirty!

Again, this idea of getting dirty just enough to get a feel for the difficult lifestyle of the poor irks me to no end (which is a problem I have with many short term mission trips). Now, we turn their struggle for survival into a Contemporary Christian pop song that seems to have the goal of getting kids all charged up to dish out some soup. I can just envision a youth minister playing that song with nice clips of poor people playing and telling the kids, “We need to really reach out.” And for a day, or even a week the youth group heads somewhere and makes a real difference – in the lives of the kids. Then they return home to their plush lifestyle with a sense of accomplishment while the poor remain entrenched in their lifestyle.

So where does that leave me (besides by the toilet with a sick feeling in my stomach)? Again, I don’t think we are all called to a vow of poverty, but we have to be called to more than dishing out soup every once in a while. To more than collecting cans for food pantries. To more than brief encounters with the oppressed of the world. To more than activities that simply boost our attitudes but provide little long term improvement for those whom we say we are trying to love.

Maybe writing a journal entry about the problem will solve it.