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by CharlesColeman 2668 days ago
> Someone’s foul odor and possible mental illness affects others negatively, the color of someone’s skin does not. They are not comparable at all.

To be perfectly frank: that justification stinks of rationalization. I'm sure that the people who put up those signs I linked also felt that the presence of black customers would have affected them negatively.

> Let’s build facilities to treat the mentally ill and help addicts, let’s help the homeless who have hit hard times.

Those laws I mentioned previously had something to say about limiting black people to special facilities built especially for them, and excluding them from facilities built for whites [1].

> Let’s not make it the job of...libraries to host them and play the “discrimination, but not discrimination” game.

Are you serious? Libraries are public institutions.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_Unit...

1 comments

Particles landing on someone’s olfactory nerves causing chemical reactions that inform the person that they should be repulsed is not the same as a person “feeling” that someone with different color skin negatively affects them.

Libraries are for learning, community events, tutoring, many things, but having homeless people stink up the place ruins it for everyone. I don’t understand how someone can argue that society should let a group of people ruin it for everyone. It’s the same as someone walking in with speakers and blasting loud music in a library.

> I don’t understand how someone can argue that society should let a group of people ruin it for everyone.

I don't understand how someone can make sweeping generalizations about an entire group of people, and argue that they should be excluded from "learning, community events, tutoring, many things" because of ignorant stereotyping

>It’s the same as someone walking in with speakers and blasting loud music in a library

It really isn't at all. People don't walk around blasting loud music because they don't have access to proper facilities and products to care for themselves at the same level that you are able to.

It's notable that you keep returning to strong body odor again and again. While I'm sure you can find an examples of homeless people like that, and it's likely that homeless people as a population have more body odor problems, superhuman body odor is hardly a universal quality of the homeless.

The root comment made no mention of body odor, let alone body odor so bad that it would affect other customers. It also referenced a region where the rent is so damn high that people have been driven out of stable housing and are forced to live in campers on the street [1]. It only described a situation were a business was trying to keep "those people" out.

It seems pretty clear to me that you're engaging in negative stereotyping to justify your prejudices. Thank you for the education, it's rare in my life that I see such attitudes so openly displayed.

[1] https://www.mv-voice.com/news/2018/03/08/council-rejects-res...