Last Thursday, I attended a seminar on how we, as people of different backgrounds, create a dialogue and interact with each other. Although no other students showed up, making it difficult to have a dialogue with different perspectives, GRF Magdala, her sister, and I brought up some interesting personal experiences and some questions that can arguably not have a right or wrong answer.
One of the events that struck Cornell this past semester was the assault of of a black man by a white man in Collegetown. First of all, just the fact that this incident was described as being between a ‘black’ and ‘white’ man is significant. We are brought up to categorize people and things, and race and ethnicity plays a big role in this. Racial stereotypes are probably the most prevalent of all stereotypes. We constantly fall into this stereotypes, knowingly or unknowingly. This incident in Collegetown sparked the black lives matter movement on the Cornell campus. Then, there was some controversy over how the issue should be about how all lives matter. Now, nobody can argue with the fact that all lives do matter, but there is reason that the slogan is black lives matter. Black people are constantly oppressed by the majority white. There is not enough awareness for them, so that is why there is a black lives matter movement. However, what is interesting is that although the black lives matter movement is a movement to liberate black people from oppression, it requires the support of ALL people, no matter their race or ethnicity. Yet, the black proponents of the movement do not particularly like it when someone that is not black wants to actively partake in the movement. This seems contradictory, but in a way it makes sense as to why this mindset occurs. Essentially, nobody truly understands someone’s situation unless they are in that situation. Especially with racial matters, it becomes extremely difficult to truly empathize. This is key point that makes it hard for us as students of various backgrounds to have a dialogue with each other in which we truly feel comfortable with each other instead of being on edge about offending someone.
Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that there really is no ‘right’ way to create a dialogue amongst diverse people. We can try to understand each other’s preferences and perspectives and how they came to be as a result of their unique background, but we can never truly empathize. This is not to say that we are forever doomed, but the truth of the matter is that there is no magical way to communicate with each other without some conflict.
That’s really disappointing that no one else showed up to this event, because I think discussions like this are important. I’ve been to a couple similar seminars, and the turnout has always seemed to be low and not very diverse. I wonder if it’s because conversations about specific issues can be awkward with people from diverse backgrounds and like you said, not being scared of offending someone.
I don’t know how I feel about your take on empathy though. No one can truly understand another person’s situation, but the same thing can be said among populations as well. No two people are the same either, so despite similarities, their personal experiences will also be different. Even among siblings that grow up together in the same household can internalize the same events in a vastly different ways. But allies can be very important, especially because there is power in numbers. Just because people haven’t had the same experiences, doesn’t mean they can’t genuinely care.