"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe: nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to posses a mind. I am invisible, simply because people refuse to see me." - Ralph Ellison,
in Invisible Man.

This quote cuts deep into the bone of my life. People refuse to see me. I often see them closing their eyes in denial. People couldn't have possibly said cruel things to you, you're making it all up! My snide remark wasn't an insult! Guys hit on you all the time, although I wasn't there, and I don't know you! People plug their ears and see only what they want to see.

If they saw the reality, would they explode? Would they disappear? Would they die? What's so horrible about seeing the truth? It's the same for anyone else who isn't successful.

People refuse to see the struggles of the poor, saying they are just lazy. The mentally ill are just lazy. People shut their eyes to their diseased brains. Fat people chow down all the time, despite the struggles of the women starving themselves, yet not getting any thinner. Racism doesn't exist, all blacks are just pathological liars.

In the world that they see when they close their eyes, everyone has an equal share, and if you aren't getting all you can get, you're just a horrible person. It's easy to believe that, when most people are invisible to you.