Oprah Winfrey Takes On Tent City

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The long awaited flick, commissioned by Nashville native Oprah Winfrey and done last year around the lives of the residents of Tent City, has finally been set to air.

I'm pleased to say that if the trailer is any indication, the documentary ought to have a powerful impact on folks around the country.  Of course, it's almost certainly going to stir some controversy, as well, since the ignorance around the complexities of homelessness is rampant - still.


Tent City U.S.A. - Trailer

Due primarily to the economic recession, a growing number of people are finding themselves in a position they never imagined: homeless. Tent City U.S.A. explores a community in Nashville, Tennessee of nearly 100 homeless people who live under a downtown bridge. They work to stay together after a devastating flood destroys their land and forces them to evacuate.

Tent City U.S.A. premieres Thursday, April 5th at 9/8c only on OWN.

I do hope folks will watch with an open mind and a realization that they almost certainly will be coming at this video with their own ethnocentric baggage.  You've got to suspend that when you enter this "world," just like you would when you enter any 3rd world country, because people, when forced to survive in abject, grinding poverty, often do things that the "well to do" would find not only distasteful but at times shocking.  

Living conditions can also shock the conscience, as it should, but it should not in any way color the way you see the fellow human beings in this film, who are struggling at the very bottom of our society. Think of them in the context that, if the socioeconomic strata were spaced across rungs on a ladder, the folks in the camp aren't even within sight of the bottom rung.  

Worse, those situated along the rungs don't often have a lot of sympathy for most folks languishing on the ground below them, and those that do are usually not in any position to be of much help, since they are struggling themselves to keep from falling to the ground with them.  The folks in the camps, on the streets, living in dumpsters, doghouses, and under the viaducts of our country are similar in many ways I think, to India's "Untouchables" caste class (although India's Constitution was changed to eliminate this Caste ranking, change and acceptance has been extremely slow to occur), and extricating themselves from this social status in America is no easy task.  

In any event, I hope that the documentary helps increase the knowledge around homelessness and helps people understand the critical need of the community support that folks in the camps get and give to each other.

This aspect I think is the most important lesson one can take away from any homeless encampment, and it drives home the critical importance of Peer support as individuals transition out of camps and into "standardized" housing.  Without that peer support and wrap around help from the rest of us, the chances that folks will succeed in this transition decline considerably.

Thanks to Oprah for having the ovaries to shine a light on America's "Untouchables," the folks who shot the video, and those who worked tirelessly with members of the camp to help when the rest of the city was at their heels trying to shut them down.

But the biggest "Thanks" by far goes to the residents of the camp, many who I consider my friends to this day, for their willingness to allow the rest of the world to see them at some of their lowest points in life.  It takes tremendous courage to allow a spotlight to be shined upon you when your life is in complete disarray and you're living in the depths of poverty most of us can't even begin to imagine.

Frankly, to let strangers come in and record some of the most challenging and at times devastating moments of your life is beyond courageous, and each and every member of the camp should be applauded for the strength and fortitude they exhibited by allowing the rest of us to catch a glimpse of what life is like for them.