When scrolling through an app, watching the news, or reading a book or article, you’re bound to encounter some current conflict or tragedy. And when you see these types of things, how does it make you feel? Does it make you angry, sad, empty, depressed? Do you not feel anything at all? Maybe you think, ‘That doesn’t relate to me, so why should I care.’ And yes, that’s an easy mindset; it makes sense; it’s not affecting my life, so I don’t feel strongly about it.
Besides having basic empathy for others, a problem with this mindset is that it often seems to bleed over into more significant issues. When people protest something or try to bring awareness to a problem, it doesn’t affect you; you ignore it. You are just one person, so it won’t change anything if you do. But that’s probably what another thousand people are thinking, too, which is precisely why it’s essential to care. Change is only ever made when enough people are supporting the change. Without the individual, there is no group.
I find this kind of apathy usually always goes hand in hand with hate. This sounds like a complete contradiction, but when you hate something, you won’t care when something wrong happens to it, do you? When it comes to issues regarding race, sexuality, and gender, I find this is a very prominent issue. Not only among the oppressor but among the oppressed too. Which I find odd, although that’s an understatement.
You have situations where minorities will ignore the discrimination against other minorities or even contribute to the issue because it’s not them. However, this kind of behavior is what maintains a system of oppression in the first place, not just for a specific group but for everyone. Of course, the oppressor will always be the main issue, but when all the groups that share that oppressor can’t get along. Well, that is not going to get you anywhere.
Struggles of communities like different racial and ethnic communities, the lgbtq+ community, and women are not something you can pick and choose where you put your support. Intersectionality is a massive part of dismantling oppressive systems. As I said before, having a connection and understanding between communities will bring better results. However, what most people need to understand is that the oppression of these groups quite literally upholds each other.
Sexism, homophobia, racism, transphobia, you name it, all are connected because, funny enough, people can be a part of more than one of those communities. An overlap exists, even though some people seem to forget that.
An excellent example is the women’s suffrage movement in the 1920s. The problem with this movement is that it wasn’t all that inclusive. When you look up women’s suffrage leaders, most of them are white women. Despite all the equally essential women of color who fought for their rights. And this is because racism was such a big issue at the time that white women did not think of or want to
include women of color, primarily black women, as a part of their fight for equality. And the 19th Amendment being passed did not mean as much to black women as it did to white women. As laws and rules regarding voting for black people at the time, it was a challenge actually to cast a ballot.
But because of the lack of intersectionality, only one group of women got what they wanted, while everyone else struggled. Because those issues did not affect white women, they did not care to do anything about it.
The point is that everyone should care for others; it doesn’t bring anything good not to. It’s just incredibly hypocritical for any minority not to. You know what it’s like to be on the receiving side of discrimination, so why subject someone else to it as well? Whether intentionally or because you decided you don’t care for something that doesn’t directly affect you.
Indifference is a dangerous stance to take. It’s better to feel strongly about something than feel nothing at all for it. It may not affect you now, but it’s impossible to say it never will. Although it shouldn’t matter either way, caring isn’t a difficult thing to do.
