'Make them visible'

Some people are invisible.

It's the most basic of human needs, from early infancy and throughout a lifetime: feeling valued. To achieve this we look foremost to family. When family rejects you the effects are complex and life-altering. How about when family has no idea you're there, despite being inches away?

That's exactly what happened in each and every case of a social experiment released this month called "Make Them Visible," conducted by New York Rescue Mission, a century-old charity which operates a homeless shelter. Study volunteers with "normal" lives were dressed and made up to look like homeless people, then placed on the street where their relatives - who were unaware of the true experiment - would be walking. The relatives believed they were simply on their way to be interviewed as participants in a documentary about homelessness.

Recorded by hidden camera, they passed their own spouses, siblings, children, cousins, or parents and kept right on walking, some of them at a quickened pace. Several didn't even look, but a few glanced. One almost stared. None registered familiarity.

Loved ones, so easily made invisible and quickly judged by shoddy clothes, worn out shopping bags, and a little dirt. Later, the walkers saw themselves on film. They felt shock, shame, tears. One woman said she was heartbroken, after passing her mother and beloved uncle, huddled together on the street.

The documentary team interviewed the "homeless" and relatives both before and after the experiment was revealed. The relatives had expressed deep love and affection for the individuals they later ignored, and who were equally surprised at being ignored and unrecognized. One man who had been married for 34 years didn't recognize his own wife.

You can experience the film briefly at Makethemvisible.com. Three minutes of your life. Well spent.

The idea wasn't to make anyone feel bad (reunions afterward are replete with smiles), but to raise awareness, said the film's director, Jun Diaz. The homeless are not another species to be dismissed; they are human beings with feelings, family, and experiences which led to where they currently are. The rest of society can not make them - and the associated thoughts of sadness, discomfort, and fear (typically disguised as judgment) - disappear by ignoring them.

"But we had to make it very clear that it could have been any of us. I'll tell you, it would have been me," Diaz said.

Most people look past those who are clearly suffering, rather than at them. We prefer to avoid, tell ourselves we are somehow superior and thus immune, or that we can do nothing. That's never true; we can at least acknowledge fellow souls. Make them visible.

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at sholeh@cdapress.com.