Social invisibility is the condition in which a group of people is
separated or systematically
ignored by the majority of a society. As a result, those who are marginalized feel neglected or being invisible in the society. It can include
disadvantaged
The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who:
* Face special problems such as physical disability, physical or mental disorder, mental disability
* Lack money or economic supportKingdom of Nepal: Economic and Soc ...
, elderly homes, child
orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...
s,
homeless
Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...
people or anyone who experiences a sense of being ignored or separated from society as a whole.
Psychological consequences
The subjective experience of being unseen by others in a social environment is social invisibility. A sense of disconnectedness from the surrounding world is often experienced by invisible people. This disconnectedness can lead to absorbed coping and breakdowns, based on the asymmetrical relationship between someone made invisible and others.
Among
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
men, invisibility can often take the form of a psychological process that both deals with the stress of racialized invisibility, and the choices made in becoming visible within a social framework that
predetermines these choices. In order to become visible and gain acceptance, an African-American man has to avoid adopting behavior that made him invisible in the first place, which intensifies the stress already brought on through
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
.
Positive meaning
Although social invisibility is usually considered a form of marginalization of certain individuals and groups, in recent debates, some scholars have also insisted on the function of invisibility as a strategy for evading identification and categorization. In the wake of authors like
Edouard Glissant and his defense of a "right to opacity", it has been argued that "tactical invisibility" can serve as a means of resistance in a world of data surveillance.
See also
*
Apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
*
LGBT erasure
*
Necropolitics
Necropolitics is a sociopolitical theory of the use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die. The deployment of necropolitics creates what Achille Mbembe calls ''deathworlds'', or "new and unique form ...
*
Paper genocide
*
Racial color blindness
*
Social exclusion
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. In the EU context, the Euro ...
*
Social vulnerability
In its broadest sense, social vulnerability is one dimension of vulnerability to multiple stressors and shocks, including abuse, social exclusion and natural hazards. Social vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations, and so ...
References
Social networks
Invisibility
Social rejection
Passing (sociology)
Censorship
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