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Who Cares About Empathy?
I live in a progressive West Coast city. If I made either of the following claims at any gathering of my mainline-liberal neighbors, I doubt that anyone would raise an objection. Among left-of-center people, they’re both widely and frequently repeated:
- Empathy is the basis of morality.
- It is impossible for the privileged to empathize with the marginalized.
Each of those makes some sense on its own. The people who accept them do so in good faith. But isn’t there some tension between the two? If everyone has some degree of privilege, does that mean that we’re all constitutionally unable to behave ethically towards enormous swaths of the population? If so, then out the window goes any idea of “being an ally” (or “accomplice” or “co-conspirator,” if you prefer). If no empathy = no morality, and identity difference = no empathy, then the whole progressive project is quixotic. Improving any group’s position in society would be more or less impossible. I can’t deny that that’s an internally logically consistent philosophy. But it strikes me as awfully bleak.
Luckily, it also seems empirically untrue. I know straight parents who fiercely love and advocate for their gay kids. Plenty of cis people have done right by me, even when they could’ve gotten away with treating me badly. And I’ve seen lots of healthy, mutually-supportive, and…