Events & Calendars CHI Salon: "Engaging with the Failures of Racial Empathy"

In this talk, CHI Fellow Ashlie Sandoval examines the limitations of empathy to think through its role in struggles for racial justice. Scholars, tech entrepreneurs and media pundits are calling for an increase in empathy, in the face of media attention that has recently spotlighted police brutality, racialized COVID-19 deaths and the renewed visibility of white supremacy groups. To develop non-Black individuals’ capacity to undo racial injustice, specifically the daily violence experienced by Black people, some have turned to virtual reality to instill empathy, claiming that it may move viewers beyond feelings of pity to feeling accountable to dismantle racism.

However, is racial empathy possible? And what can we expect from it? Examining philosophical critiques of empathy’s capabilities in the context of anti-Black racism, Sandoval focuses on what empathy’s limitations might tell us about the emotional and material structures that prevent empathy from achieving the results its advocates often hope for.