When I was a boy my superpower was invisibility.
My best friend shared the gift. We discovered our unusual abilities when we were 10. There was a cement pond in the woods behind Schlarman High School. It was hidden on the ruins of the old Hegeler mansion. It was a very hot, humid day, and despite the modesty of good Catholic and Presbyterian upbringings, we soon found ourselves two wild naked Indians romping through the ‘wilderness’ unworried about any eyes that might see us. For several years thereafter we did things with bravado that few others would have dared. Clothed and unclothed. We were invisible.
There is another kind of invisibility that is not a superpower. It comes, when one is devalued and rejected. Black Americans, other people of color, and those living on the margins, know this experience well. The disabled and disenfranchised live beneath the view of most people every day.
““I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.””
It takes a lot to be recognized as an equal when those with power are not interested. Power discounts the validity of claims that some are ‘more equal than others’ by hearkening back to the good old days when everything was copacetic. Or at least that was their experience. They object to any notion of personal bias. Blaming others is easier and denial has been such a comfortable hiding place. But now the powerless, who never languished in those good old days, will not be ignored. There is too much video evidence that affirms their position. Too many broken promises. Organized and passionate, they will be seen and they will be heard.
There will be backlash. There will be resistance. But, once invisible and then noticed, there is no path back. Change is gonna come as the old song says. It is up to all of us to be a part of it, embrace it, and then to celebrate our oneness.