Why “squatter” should not be an insult

Posted by Frances on July 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment

SQUATTER is a derogatory term that implies one is cheap or ill-mannered, definitely beyond tolerance. One who is called squatter is accused of behaving according to a socially-recognized, imagined lifestyle of the poor. While others may deny its “recognition,” its existence in our collective memory is asymptomatic of the lack of conscious effort to eradicate this elitist perspective. Let’s admit: we know what it means when someone is insulted as ‘squatter.’

The term denotes someone living in shanties illegally located on land that is not one’s own. But when we use the ’squatter’ as an insult, their situation of poverty becomes not only a financial state; but also a subhuman lifestyle that merits disgust. The gap between the rich and the poor is widened by pulling down the description of poor into the fringes of the intolerable. [Read more]

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