The invisibility of the human being

As of today, I am unfortunately unemployed again. And I say it is unfortunate because, other than a few mishaps that are inherent to most jobs, I actually quite like it. I liked the place and I liked the work but, mostly, I liked the people that I was fortunate in working with.

However, yesterday, after a week of contemplating whether or not I should do this, I gained the courage to say goodbye, not to any of my coworkers, but to a lady that has been daily delivering newspapers nearby for the last few months.

And, with that interaction, I ended up learning something curious about her: she's actually doing her master's right now and the reason why she's delivering newspapers is that her thesis is going to be about the invisibility of the human being.

She mentioned that, in today's society, not only homeless people but also people with certain jobs (such as street janitors or newspaper deliverers), are invisible to other people. That made me recall some of the odd reactions I had witnessed the passersby having towards her, and I immediately knew exactly what she meant - some people even averted their gaze. It made me question how such people would have reacted if she was a homeless person.

On top of that, it also made me recall an 'incident' that happened a few years back: my internship tutor asking me not to speak with the cleaning lady. Until this day, I'm not quite sure if it was a racist comment (given that the cleaning lady was a person of color) or if she is just one of those people who consider themselves superior to anyone who works on cleaning.

Back in the day, there used to be this stigma that only illiterate people had such jobs. Nowadays, given the global economic crisis that we're still undergoing, that is even no longer the case - we have people with bachelor and masters degrees working in such professions, or even unemployed.

Still, there are still people who get this almost instinctive reaction of superiority when being nearby people who work in such professions. Why? Anyone of us can be fired at any given time in our careers and end up working on a low-paying job. Or finding themselves unable to find a job and end up losing their house.

So why? Why do are we like this to one another? Just why.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Let me know in the comments below.