What to do about it, I don't know, besides [...] mandatory sociology classes.
This isn't quite a concrete suggestion of something to do, but I did notice at the capitol protests last year a lot of enthusiasm for solidarity with the less rather than more fortunate, even if they're people who aren't just like us (whoever "us" is in a given context). Sure, plenty of people at the protests had taken sociology classes or had some history of involvement in one movement or another, but there were also plenty who had not, and yet everyone seemed receptive to the repeated messages of, for example, support for people of color who are being disproportionally hurt by [insert Republican policy here].
I can't say for sure how much of it stuck, but it felt to me like a damn conducive environment for encouraging people to expand the scope of their empathy. And it was really inspiring to me, because I grew up in small town Wisconsin, and, yeah, people in small Wisconsin towns haven't historically always been known for empathy towards the oppressed and powerless.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-09 11:34 pm (UTC)This isn't quite a concrete suggestion of something to do, but I did notice at the capitol protests last year a lot of enthusiasm for solidarity with the less rather than more fortunate, even if they're people who aren't just like us (whoever "us" is in a given context). Sure, plenty of people at the protests had taken sociology classes or had some history of involvement in one movement or another, but there were also plenty who had not, and yet everyone seemed receptive to the repeated messages of, for example, support for people of color who are being disproportionally hurt by [insert Republican policy here].
I can't say for sure how much of it stuck, but it felt to me like a damn conducive environment for encouraging people to expand the scope of their empathy. And it was really inspiring to me, because I grew up in small town Wisconsin, and, yeah, people in small Wisconsin towns haven't historically always been known for empathy towards the oppressed and powerless.