In wrapping up our celebratory 20th anniversary year, Street Roots continues to contemplate our role in the community. At the very surface, we look at how we tell our story, how we identify our voice. From our earliest days, we have relied on a particular phrase: For those who can’t afford free speech.
With the start of the new year, we thought it might be time to revisit that narrative, create a broader descriptor that more pointedly reflects our journalism and advocacy. Thoughts of “Democracy Dies in Darkness” from The Washington Post, inspired us to consider something more straightforward than what we have now. Truth be told, our tagline was inspired by a line in the Parliament song “Funkentelechy.” (As fine an origin as any, in our opinion.)
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It’s a funny phrase: For those who can’t afford free speech. “Isn’t free speech already free?” more than a few people have asked.
The answer is no.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision known as Citizens United, which concluded that the government cannot restrict corporations, associations and labor unions from making independent expenditures in support of or opposition to candidates. Unlimited spending of money was protected as free speech, under the First Amendment. That decision, weaponized in this digital age, ushered in the era of super PACs, politicized media empires and endless, manipulative online platforms in which money was no object in spreading the narrative of special interest groups. The din is stifling.
At the other end of the spectrum, the price of free speech grows more expensive with each law that penalizes people exercising their rights to speech and freedom to assembly. Ask any of the Portland demonstrators who were arrested this past summer, but never charged, about the price paid for free speech. Elsewhere, the protests around the Dakota Access Pipeline spurred several proposals to quell the opposition that included enhancing criminal penalties for minor offenses and making protesters convicted of even misdemeanors pay for the public safety costs of a demonstration. It is one example in a movement to stifle free speech through monetary or criminal penalties.
Which is why we say for those who can’t afford free speech. It’s not about the legality of free speech, but the power of free speech. Not the kind of power that’s authoritative or capitalizing, but the kind that has the force to crush oppression. The kind that inspires others to something better. Because what is the point or the urgency of free speech if no one listens? If no one learns? And where is the liberty in delivering a message predestined to be ignored?
When you’re poor, ill, marginalized or homeless, it can be difficult to be heard. Even in moments in the media spotlight, when all eyes are on the issue of homelessness, it’s not always the truth of this complex issue that we witness, but a distracting veneer that masks a larger, more uncomfortable responsibility.
And then there are the legions of people who are appointed — by themselves or someone else — to speak on your behalf. For example, take the new director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates the work of 19 agencies including the Bureau of Housing and Urban Development. Robert Marbut is one of the biggest voices on this issue. Marbut was the founder of Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas, the inspiration behind the local nonprofit Harbor of Hope, which partnered with the city/county Joint Office of Housing Services to open the River District Navigation Center here in Portland.
Marbut then became a homeless consultant, making six-figure salaries on projects that promoted one-stop shelters (what he calls “transformational centers” critics have likened to jails). He condemns food sharing programs and similar offerings that he says encourage people to become or stay homeless. In these centers, sleeping arrangements, privacy and learning opportunities are privileges to be used as awards. He doesn’t support “housing first” programs, even though they have been proven to stabilize people to better address other issues such as employment or health matters, in cities across the country and here in Portland.
His is a privileged, poverty-shaming approach that rations assistance in exchange for mandatory programming because, he believes, the core causes of homelessness are behavioral problems and the inability to hold a job. (Of course there’s also domestic violence in the case of women, according to Marbut. Nevermind that if a victim could afford their own apartment to escape to, they might not have ended up homeless in the first place. Never mind affordable housing, period, for that matter.)
Marbut’s voice wields extraordinary power and influence, more than enough to crowd out those who actually have something to say on the matter.
Yes, free speech isn’t necessarily free or even affordable to people who deserve to be heard, and sometimes they are the people we need to hear most.
So we’re sticking with our tagline. Maybe some people will still find it a bit unusual, but it’s important that we stay grounded in what we do and for whom. This does not mean all the voices in our paper are from people without means, but within the mix of topics and sources are the people at the core of our mission.
We also adhere to another saying, much older than our tagline: “Nothing about us without us,” that those affected by a policy should have a place at the table in its creation. It’s a familiar phrase among social justice campaigns, because no oppression ever ended without the oppressed commanding a just narrative, and likewise we will never end poverty and homelessness unless we make the space, ensure a place at the table, and listen to the voices from the streets — from those who can’t afford free speech.
BELIEVE OUR STORIES & LISTEN: Perspectives on first response on the streets
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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