Living As Invisible Minority
You have no community — or all of them.
It’s quiet hard to start this piece — why? On the surface and in many other ways I’m among people of super-privilege.
I live in one of the wealthiest and safest countries on this planet: Switzerland. I moved there in the year 2000 from another rather privileged country: Austria — with the help of my privileged European passport.
I look male, nor my looks nor my name give away my ethnicity.
I work as an Engineer in IT. Even though I have not much of an education I somehow stumbled into: Linux, open-source and engineering.
My apartments usually have 3–4 bedrooms and are located in the “good” parts close to the next city. Very green, quiet, suburbanish, safe. Whenever I lost my iPhone, cards and other things of value are usually returned back to me.
All this description of how my particular privilege looks like is only to provide the context to what is about to come. I’m much aware of all this privilege and the duties that in my opinion come attached to it. I’m very aware that a lot of people in the world have very different experiences than I and many of my “peers” have.
But in other ways beyond this surface, which surely makes my life much easier than most, there is much more.
First I don’t identify as male even though I pass as one. I’m not heterosexual even though I can pass as one. I could be monogamous, but I’m not. I look vanilla, but I’m not.
As my beloved half-sister puts it:
You’re a freak.
Where does a “freak” belong, is there some kind of freak guild, or a secret freak society? Is there a secret sign or handshake that connects with all the other people who feel or are freaky, whether they like it or not?
Honestly I don’t know. All I know is that I’m outing myself with this article. I might totally fall out of some of my privileges, but life in the shadows, even though privileged shadows, is full of longing and dreams about a life outside of the shadows. Light? Out? Non-privileged? Less-privileged?
I’m in a way really afraid, but also really longing to get out of this comfort zone of invisibility. I even think about including this important part of mine in professional networks. This may disqualify me for some jobs, but also there is a filter, that goes in both directions.
Love
Mirjam
