“Empathy Won’t Save Us In the Fight Against Oppression. Here’s Why.”
“the belief that empathy can solve the world’s ills relies on the idea that we are all similar enough that someone else’s pain can be understood through the understanding of our own.
What happens when we do not understand our own pain? What happens when we really are different, and substantially so? What happens when those differences cannot be understood? Or, at least, what happens before those differences can be understood?..
Appealing to the empathy of those who are not marginalized centers their understanding at the expense of the lives of the oppressed. It is why, as Bloom writes, “When (Natalee) Holloway disappeared, the story of her plight took up far more television time than the concurrent genocide in Darfur.” Relying on empathy alone will always make the causes of those more relatable to society at large more salient…
As marginalized people, most of our pain can’t be felt by anyone else. It is impossible to share it all, and both sadistic and sadomasochistic to try. Instead, we should focus on reinforcing the necessity of feeling one’s own humanity and respecting the humanity of others without the condition of familiarity.”
Related: “Empathy Is Actually a Choice”; “Black Trauma Remixed For Your Clicks”
