Summary

The author expresses concern over the divisive nature of racial discourse, advocating for a broader recognition that all life matters and emphasizing the need for mutual respect and understanding.

Abstract

The article titled "Empathy Exhaustion" reflects the author's personal fatigue with the current state of racial discourse, particularly the repeated emphasis on the phrase "Black Lives Matter." The author acknowledges the importance of the movement but questions the segregation and lack of inclusivity in the conversation, suggesting that all lives, regardless of race or ethnicity, deserve respect and acknowledgment. The author, drawing from a diverse personal history, argues for a more universal approach to valuing life and addressing discrimination, highlighting the ongoing global issue of slavery and the need for honest dialogue about past and present injustices. The piece calls for a collective shift towards sincerity, empathy, and consciousness, with the belief that mutual respect is the cornerstone for achieving true equality and understanding.

Opinions

The author feels overwhelmed by the pervasive focus on the "Black Lives Matter" movement, sensing an imbalance that may undermine the cause.
There is a concern that the current racial discourse is creating segregation rather than promoting unity and shared respect for all lives.
The author believes that historical and current issues of slavery and discrimination should not be overshadowed by any single advocacy movement.
The article suggests that the demand for justice is infinite and cannot be satisfied by addressing historical grievances alone.
It is emphasized that equality should be a given in society and not merely a legislated requirement.
The author posits that respect is a fundamental two-way street and that honest listening is crucial for genuine respect to be achieved.
The piece advocates for a global perspective on human rights issues, with an inclusive approach to addressing the horrors inflicted upon each other.
The author calls for a move beyond historical and current discrimination to foster a society where mutual respect and empathy are natural states.

Empathy Exhaustion

If you do not condemn it… by default, you are seen to condone it. But what if the issue is misdirected?

I feel I am spiraling into to a pit of empathy exhaustion. It is not a pit I wish to be hurled into, nor jump of my own accord, and yet it looms unwanted before me.

Everywhere I turn on Medium, I feel inundated, not smothered nor suffocated, but definitely awash with one phrase. The phrase that is so ardently iterated is ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’. They do, does anyone say they don’t?

Article upon article trundles opinion and emotional distress on this issue triggered by the abhorrent abuse of several police officers that has in due course condemned hundreds of millions.

In corners, like odorous whiffs of discontent, I begin to smell the backlash of phrases such as… ‘What? So, no other lives matter?’

These phrases will not serve the base truth needing to be discussed, but equally the imbalance in the Black Lives Matter argument imperils the worthiness of the cause.

I am perplexed by this. Before hackles arise, I must add a caveat; “Yes I am of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Jewish ethnicity, born on the edge of a leper colony in Barotseland (the African bush), suckled from the breast of a Bemba tribeswoman, had my life saved by a Lozi tribesman and then again by an Irishman. Chased by gunpoint from our home country for our skin color and racially abused in several countries, and continents both subtlety and otherwise because of my color, accent, or cultural heritage.” But that is my past, not my present.

I have grown weary of the segregation occurring in the racial discourse.

I believe LIFE MATTERS. Whether that life be; Asian lives matter, Black lives matter, Fur-covered lives matter, Hispanic lives matter, Native American/First Nations lives matter, Unborn lives matter, Uyghur lives matter, etc…

Life Matters.

We see congregations, crowds, or even mobs gathering and the din of the voices calling for adjustment, reparations, entitlements… but where does that end?

One of the last articles I read on Medium insisted that the figure of Christ should have the color changed. Will we change the color of Lao Tsu, the Buddha? Will the Black Eyed Peas change their band name like the Dixie Chicks?

Who can succinctly answer, when asked, what do you want?

The response is often , “We just — STOP THERE — just? Define ‘just.’

When ‘just’ is uttered, in anger, exasperation or demand, there is no endpoint of the ‘just.’

JUST, is insatiably infinite. It can never be satisfied because it is based in a history which cannot be wound back, cannot be written. Though faulty and filled with suffering, it cannot be un-lived.

The past is to be honestly assessed and learned from. It is not meant to be erased, assumed, ignored, dismissed, and also not overwritten, reversed, nor relived.

The selective abuse of facts is too often in convenient support of one party’s argument to deride any opposing voices. Half-contrived understandings, often pedaled by the media, are dangerous. Slavery and abuse of lesser perceived individuals has been around from before the construction of the pyramids and is in existence today in the construction of other grand architectural wonders procured with money from the 1%. Slavery has existed for thousands of years, it is not exclusive to one particular group of descendants. It is estimated there are currently forty to forty-five million people suffering from slavery, today. Today.

Where are those voices?

There are four times more people currently enduring the abuse of slavery and thereby discrimination based on race or social standing today, than ever transported in the entire Atlantic slave trade, and more than 80 times the number that ever reached the shores of North America. ( figures of International Labor Organization)

What are the parameters of the question, is it about historical slavery or today’s desire to have equality? The messages are muddied.

Slavery, and its accompanying discrimination, exists in abundance today — that is one issue. Equality in the work place for one specific group, or for all? — those are other issues,

It is inappropriate for any one, particular, advocacy movement to send a message that suggests it has jurisdiction to the experiences of historical slavery, nor does it have the right to assume sole suffering of discrimination.

The horrors we inflict on each other are global and have been here for millennia and are here today. The way address those issues must likewise be fair and equal or else we tread the path of further enmity and misunderstanding.

We must learn, examine, then openly, inclusively embrace the truth of respect for each other.

Rights to enjoy freedom should be ingrained among us.

Equality is expected, a given, and should not need to be a legislated requirement.

Sincerity is a moral we should embrace.

Perspective is a thinking person’s approach to all discourse.

Empathy is a natural state of the human condition.

Consciousness is a necessity to participate as a member of society.

Togetherness is all that is needed as we are all a species of the same blood.

RESPECT… is all we need.

Thank you for reading. May we all reach a better understanding together.

Ten second takeaway

Respect is a two-way street. You’ve got to give it, to get it.

The truest form of respect is to honestly listen.