Inspired by Will Smith's movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, Tyra Banks spent a day living as a homeless person for a segment on a 2006 episode of The Tyra Banks Show. Banks warned viewers, "Believe it or not, being homeless can happen to you." She explained, "I thought the best way to bring this story to all of you was to experience it myself."
Banks wore a knit hat, a flannel top, and – seemingly not grasping the irony that many homeless people cannot not afford to be selective with their footwear selections – shared, "I was instructed to wear very thick boots, because where we're going, there's a lot of dirty needles from heroin use and there's a possibility that a needle could go through my foot." Banks had a formerly homeless woman "guide" her throughout the experience, saying, "I wanted to experience firsthand the desperation of the homeless. I wanted to understand what their lives are really like."
This obviously isn't realistically possible to accomplish while filming for one afternoon. And while it seems like Banks' heart was in the right place, the segment came across as tone deaf to many people. One person, for example, tweeted, "who remembers when tyra 'lived in the shoes' as a homeless person for twelve hours then went home after? why was she like this?"
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