I invited city managers and other city officials to a meeting to address rising homelessness in Phoenix. They were convinced they must eliminate temporary housing units, but this would have led to hundreds of women and men having to sleep on the hot concrete (often up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and in the 90s at night). These business people declared good intentions, but it seemed they just could not see beneath the surface. They couldn’t see the unintended consequences, while they studied budgets and property lines. Our job was to help ensure they could see the faces and hear the voices of those affected. Could they see beyond their own privilege to cultivate empathy for lives so different from their own?
After Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) rose to become the first democratically elected president of South Africa, a country shamed by centuries of institutionalized racism, he could have used his authority on the world stage to denigrate the people who had made his life hell for many decades. He could have used his painful memories to spread vituperation and revenge on the South African elements that had so brutally enforced apartheid. Instead, Mandela went in a morally courageous direction. He called for reconciliation. He called for peace. He used his ascent to the presidency as a clarion call for justice and freedom. He shared, ‘To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.’1
Mandela chose to go beneath the surface. As social activists, we’ve been granted the awesome and holy mandate to help make visible the invisible; we must see beneath the surface as well. We accomplish this formidable task by letting the vulnerable individuals hiding in the shadows know that we are on their side, that they exist, and that we put our all into actions that advocate for their rights, dignity, and general welfare.
Having moved among countries and cities throughout my childhood, I recall often standing alone at school recess, feeling as if I were invisible. In my own minuscule way, I feel like I can relate to the hundreds of people feeling powerless and invisible in a society that does not see them. Far beyond the social awkwardness of the childhood playground or the corporate workspace, there are invisible people everywhere who are victims of deep injustices and oppression. They are the boys who wash our dishes at restaurants and the men who wash our cars. They are the girls who make our hotel beds and the women who clean in our homes. They are the slaves confined by our penal code and the objectified defined by our romantic or sexual cravings. They are the homeless who spend their days in our shadow and their nights in our parks.
While underclass invisibility is often the result of systemic oppression, shame can cause these vulnerable individuals to exist in a depressed psychological and social condition. In my Jewish tradition, there is the pious mandate to seek out the vulnerable even during the joyous times.2 Such a notion, if broadened, trains us to open our eyes and hearts to those who are unseen. Pema Chödrön places this need to connect in context well. She writes:
Holding on to beliefs limits our experience of life. That doesn’t mean that beliefs or ideas or thinking are problems; the stubborn attitude of having to have things be a particular way, grasping on to our beliefs and thoughts, all these cause the problems. To put it simply, using your belief systems this way creates a situation in which you choose to be blind instead of being able to see, to be deaf instead of being able to hear, to be dead rather than alive, asleep rather than awake.3
In every action we do, every moment of activism in which we participate, the vision of a more just world should always be in our minds and embedded in our souls. But beyond merely working toward a tangible outcome, guarding the dignity of others is an essential component of activism. Greater than lending money or giving charity to an underprivileged individual can be the provision of sustained partnership.
Indeed, our charge is to ally with the invisible in solidarity: We must make their voices heard and their humanity seen. Surely, some of the most terrifying times in my own life have been when I didn’t really feel like I existed. In such moments, I didn’t feel acknowledged by the world, let alone appreciated or loved. I have been fortunate to have the support to get through those times. I would venture to say I am not alone in having had these feelings, nor am I alone in recognizing the role played by friends and family members who remind me of my visibility and humanity. Let us be those friends, let us be those family members, let us be the advocates for those who have few or none.
We need the courage to see and make seen the victims of injustice among us, to set them free from the social forces that fetter them with indignity. One who lacks basic needs often wishes not to be seen for fear of shame. This is made worse by the shame of our seeing them yet not taking action, and thus further obscuring visibility.
Thus, the primary goal of our spiritual lives is to see beyond the physical, to sanctify the unseen, and to elevate matter to a higher plane. A great Hasidic master, the Maggid of Mezritch, developed the idea of ‘creation out of nothing,’ meaning that part of our journey in the emulation of the Divine is to assist in bringing a form of existence to something that previously did not exist or helping something be seen that previously was unseen. Through this lens, it is as if we emulate the holy sparks that assisted in the creation of the universe itself. That is our task, our mission, and our perpetual dream.
Exercise 1: Talk with someone you see often but have never had an in-depth conversation with. See how many preconceived stereotypes and false assumptions you can shatter as you learn more about their journey.
Exercise 2: Study a field of knowledge (perhaps a particular question) and find the answer to the one question you’ve always been curious about. Follow the research question deeper and deeper until your experience of the matter is fundamentally different. Begin to see all issues in such a light, as completely false on the surface until you dig deeper and deeper.