- The folks who can& #39;t take covid seriously until someone they know dies
- The CEOs who don& #39;t care about workplace sexism until they have a daughter
- The politicians who don& #39;t support marriage equality until their son comes out

This pattern never ceases to depress me 1/

- the leaders that won& #39;t pass covid precautions until there is a major outbreak in their jurisdiction
- the manager that doesn& #39;t care about the constraints of parents until becoming one

This form of empathy is so incredibly limited. 2/

Many white people may not see themselves as directly impacted by anti-Black racism. Many USA citizens may not see themselves as directly impacted by treatment of undocumented immigrants.

But these issues are urgent & important. Empathy for those beyond your circle is crucial. 3/

Another example of failing to have empathy until directly impacted: 4/ https://twitter.com/avh4/status/1291048081044262912?s=19">https://twitter.com/avh4/stat...

I agree that belated empathy is better than doubling down on hate, but what depresses me is that this only works for a pretty limited range of issues (e.g. most white politicians that support police brutality aren& #39;t going to discover their child is Black) https://twitter.com/RWerpachowski/status/1291088340914188291?s=20">https://twitter.com/RWerpacho...

It also bothers me that people often see such "awakenings" as praise-worthy. E.g CEOs that proudly talk about how their daughter opened their eyes to sexism, without realizing how offensive it is that they didn& #39;t care before, or that they are still oblivious to racism 6/