Ralph Ellison’s words at the start of Invisible Man still rank as one of the most profound expressions of what it is like to not feel seen, heard, or understood, in this case because of race. “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me,” the nameless narrator declares. “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.” Ellison writes that a person in this position wonders “whether you aren’t simply a
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