Philosophy at the Threshold of Belonging

"I grew up in West Baltimore where I experienced homelessness for almost the entirety of high school. For me, philosophy emerged in situations of precarity and uncertainty. Those formative years, spent not so much in a single home as in a patchwork of many, shaped what are now some of my central philosophical concerns: belonging, exclusion, and the status of those at the margins of society, those at the threshold of belonging."

"Shuffled between relatives, I could feel that my presence was tolerated more as an obligation than as a joy. My interest in books, science, or whatever was my newest curiosity was barely acknowledged, often regarded as a mild inconvenience. Against the background of kitchen tables cluttered with bills, I understand why I was treated this way, but as a child, it required me to become adept at reading the coded signals that marked spaces as welcoming or forbidding."

A person experienced homelessness through high school in West Baltimore, shaping core concerns about belonging, exclusion, and social marginality. Philosophy appears as a concrete, tactile activity woven into gestures, silences, and the gritty details of daily survival rather than as abstract speculation. Family instability and repeated moves produced skills in reading coded signals of welcome or exclusion and finding refuge in small acts of care. Quiet generosity, shared meals, and the chill of closed doors structured experiences of toleration versus genuine belonging. These lived conditions orient attention toward thresholds of belonging and the survival practices of the marginalized.

Read at Apaonline