Humans by birth are empathetic creatures. We often get conscious of our actions, thinking what others might feel, think or react. So, when humans are so much accustomed and attuned to the concept of empathy, where does it go wrong?

Why do we fail to bring social differences under the scope of our empathy and not ridiculing and tagging them as ‘wrong’ or ‘inappropriate’?

Is this because we practice empathy in such a way, that only enables us to adeptly understand and respond to feelings of those who are close to us or are ‘like us’, BUT, also leads to sheer ignorance of the pain and tribulations of those who are perceived different from us or those whom we cannot relate with?

Is this because we fail to understand that our social and political identities do not function or exist in isolation, and have multiple layers to it?

Hence, is it possible to employ our inborn capacity to empathise to better understand how social inequalities work to create an environment of systematic oppression & then shape our societies in such a way that no inequality or discrimination, which affects the people in a negative way, is allowed to exist?

Is #empathy powerful enough to help the humankind end inequalities and socially constructed differences?

#genderequality #inequalities #lgbtqai #womenx

Written by – Dev Nagar.