The Pitt On Max Highlights Homelessness In Higher Education
The medical student Whitaker on the hit Max tv show The Pitt shows that often a low-income first-generation student has to go without basic necessities to finish a degree.
Being homeless in college isn’t something people talk about. Or better yet, being homeless in college isn’t something people are SUPPOSED to talk about. I realized how hush hush this was when I revealed to my own school, Spelman College, that I was homeless. And received little more than emails that seemed to be written by Queen Charlotte; filled with thoughts of sorrows and prayers. Instead of resources or connections to people that could actually help. So not only do I relate to the character Whitaker in the Max show, The Pitt. A few weeks ago I was Whitaker. Showering and sleeping where I could while maintaining a course load at a prestigious institution.
The character Dr. Dennis Whitaker, played by Gerran Howell in the medical drama The Pitt is a homeless medical student. He is a farm boy that comes from a small family of meager means in a small town. Whitaker is often seen throughout season 1 of the show glancing at the sandwich lunch tray, asking for a break, and aware of the empty rooms where staff can rest interrupted. To those unfamiliar with the signs these appear to be nothing. But for me it clicked when he slyly tried to slip a sandwich into his pocket from the patient food cart instead of going to the cafe or vending machine to buy something to eat. Not only is Whitaker’s character a struggling student, he is a student experiencing food insecurity and homelessness. Not sure of where his next meal will come from or where he may be able to sleep at night.
Being a first generation low income college student is not a path for the weak. It is a long arduous process filled with the constant feeling of playing catch up. Things your classmates have known since they were five like which alums to reach out to for support, which websites to go to for scholarships, and which classes to take you have to learn on the fly. All while probably holding down a full time courseload, completing assignments, finishing exams, and trying to find a social life. If you have to work as well you can kiss your down time goodbye. You’ll watch your classmates carelessly spend thousands on books, decorating dorms, spring break trips, and a new wardrobe. While you struggle to find used books and cover dorm dining options on a wage that’s probably below the legal minimum after taxes.
Then to add homelessness onto that; it’s something I would only wish on the most evil of the most evil. Everyday you are confronted with the fact that you have to stay in survival mode in order to find the necessities you need. Things that many take for granted like finding a place to shower, washing your clothing, having food to eat, and finding a safe place to sleep. And if you manage to find all of these things you can’t take a ton of food to carry around to save to eat tomorrow. You have no cabinet to keep them in. More than likely your belongings are not much more than items you need for school and a few meager bathroom toiletries; nothing more than what you can carry around without drawing too much suspicion on campus and standing out.
After watching the final episode of season 1 of The Pitt, I sat and thought about how many portrayals of homelessness in education I’ve seen in media. The first two I thought of were stories taken from real life experiences. Liz Murray, who famously got into Harvard as a homeless teen on the streets that finished four years high school on her own in half the time. And Michael Oher, who lived on the streets until a community in an affluent rich neighborhood of Memphis noticed his size and talents; using both to win a Division II national football championship. In both situations the people had to be above extraordinary, so unique and so gifted in order to just have the chance. In order to compensate for their humble beginnings of which they had nothing to do with, they had to have a return investment that would leave those who left them in a well-known celebratory light.
And it pissed me off. It made me think of the old saying I’ve heard so often as a Black American. You have to be twice as good to get half as far. I think this saying also applies to those who come from severely marginalized communities. All of which I believe are acknowledged in a somewhat positive way by others who may not be members of those communities. Because people can acknowledge that being Black comes with racism, being queer comes with homophibia, and being disabled comes with ableism. These are biases that will make life harder. Except being homeless. Because being homeless still comes with the shame and guilt that it’s that person’s fault. They must’ve done something so bad or been so lazy to deserve the predicament where they now find themselves. But that’s not what happened with me.
When I became homeless I was newly disabled. I’d been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder a few years before. And knew what to expect with flares; a period of time when your body is fighting a virus or illness and often attacks the white blood cells. Delaying the process of you becoming better and often destroying your future ability to fight germs you may come into contact with. But the flare wasn’t mild as others had been in the past. I had overworked myself and was for the fist time experiencing a major flare that prohibited my ability to walk to the bathroom let alone stand on my feet for eight to twelve hours a day. My days of being a waitress or working backbreaking blue collar jobs were over. Jobs that were providing me food and the money I needed to live. I not only had to take a leave of absence from school but lost the place where I lived and couldn’t afford to rent from anyone else. So I ended up on the streets. Even when I managed to find a job a few weeks later I was still homeless while studying and working for a little over another year. Living out of a rented car when I could afford it or sleeping in libraries and shelters.
I can’t tell you how many times people just suggested I call home. Call home to who? And ask them for what? There was no one I could call. No one at home who had the room or money to spare that would be able to help me out. Believe it or not I actually had several family members that blamed me for my own predicament; having the audacity to try and achieve a higher education to enter a new socio-economic status knowing that I came from a family of poverty. The only help and support I would have I could only find in myself.
Liz Murray didn’t get help from Harvard when she had to figure out how to work, study, and help her dad. Taking a leave of absence when her father was dying of AIDS. Murray eventually had to transfer to a more accommodating program. And Oher has famously sued the very family that took him in during his high school education for a conservatorship contract he neither agreed nor consented to. That took a majority of the money earned from his now famous story that was made into an Oscar winning movie. Not that much help for them either even after they had proven being homeless did not take away from their exceptional talent.
I’m glad Dr. Santos, portrayed by Isa Briones, came to Whitaker’s aid on The Pitt. She didn’t shame him or tattletale to hospital administrators. Which probably would’ve been the end of his academic career. She was able to provide a solution that helped Whitaker and gave him a place to stay. But for People think that homeless students are beyond help like with Liz Murray. Or use our predicament to question our intelligence and challenge our ownership over our lives like with Michael Oher. When in reality homeless students are no different than any other student. We have dreams, we have the ability, and we have the right to sit in esteemed classrooms just like anyone else. The only things preventing homeless students from sitting in those classes are biases and access to the help they need.
An estimated 1.5 million homeless students in higher education in the United States are still in need of that help.
