They Rise and Fall with Us

[Content Note: Bigotry.]

I've got a new piece at Shareblue about the urgent need to cultivate empathy with marginalized people:

[I]n the wake of this election, in which white supremacy, patriarchy, heterocentrism, Christianity, and able-bodiedness were centered — and divergence from those privileges devalued — we must urgently focus on the cultivation of empathy with marginalized people.

And we must do it not just because it is the principled thing to do, but because we are one country — like it or not — and we are all in this thing together. We must demand empathy with us out of self-interest, and make clear that it is in the self-interest of people who resent us, too.

We are all in the same leaky, creaky, unreliable boat. And knowing that means understanding even the most voracious self-interest is best served by egalitarianism: A fortune is worth nothing at the bottom of the ocean, less than a single penny carried safely to shore.

There is much more at the link. And this is, in case it isn't evident, an upturning of the expectation that we empathize with Trump supporters.

And I will say once more: We will be light for each other in these dark times, and I commit to centering my love for you and myself in my resistance.