Homelessness in Black and White
1st September 2023
I stood across the street from Seattle’s City Hall, next to a long line of tents. There were more than fifteen of them, no more than a few feet apart. In between the tents, furniture and trash was piled high. The encampment took up the entire sidewalk, forcing pedestrians to walk in the street and triggering nonstop honking from passing cars. In a parking lot on the corner, people from a local mutual aid group stood at a booth, handing out food and water. They had signs making clear their views: “Stop the Sweeps,” “You sweep we strike,” “Fuck Capitalism,” “Equity now!” and “Smash Fascism.”
This particular aid group were self-identified anarchists. I recognized one of the members, who had contacted my family a few months ago because he was unhappy with an article I had written criticizing the decriminalization of drugs. Nearly every tent carried one of the messages the anarchists had on their signs, shirts, buttons, posters and bumper stickers. A few homeless people told me that the group had spray-painted the slogans on the tents, and that they’d felt like they had no choice but to go along because the anarchists had provided the tents. One admitted it was best to let them do it because opposing them could get the homeless folks banned from the area.