Empathy and white supremacy cannot coexist.
To maintain slavery, colonization, and racial violence, white Americans had first to kill empathy. They had to shut down the natural human impulse that says this is wrong. They had to believe that the people they enslaved weren’t people at all, weren’t mothers, children, thinkers, creators. Just bodies to exploit. Labor to extract. Lives to discard.
“You had to kill empathetic feelings toward these people within yourself,”
I’ve said.
“That lack of empathetic understanding was a cornerstone of white supremacy and dominance.”
“Human Ghosts”: A French Witness to American Cruelty
I recall reading about a visitor to the United States, likely French, who traveled to the American South during the era of slavery. He described enslaved Black people as “human ghosts.”Visible, but not seen. Present, but not felt.
The emotional contradiction shook him.
How could white Americans be generous and polite in one moment and participate in rape, brutality, and forced labor the next?
Because empathy had been removed systematically.
And that detachment didn’t die with slavery. It evolved.
This is a country where:
White families packed picnic lunches and brought children to watch Black people tortured in fields and town squares.1
Victims were not simply hanged. They were burned alive, castrated, whipped, mutilated, and brutalized for hours.2
Their bodies were then posed for “funny” photographs.
These photos were turned into postcards, mailed across the country like souvenirs.3
Body parts were severed—fingers, ears, teeth, genitals—and sold as “lucky charms” or passed down as mementos.4
The NAACP once hung a banner from its New York headquarters:
“A man was lynched yesterday.”5
These were not just crimes; they were public spectacles.
Not just state-sanctioned, but community-celebrated.6
Empathy wasn’t lost. It was intentionally excluded.
Because to keep white supremacy alive, it had to be.
The Rise of Empathy Changed Everything
But empathy didn’t stay buried forever.
Abolitionists demanded it.
Civil rights leaders evoked it.
The Great Society legislated it.
And for a time, America tried to feel again.
Empathy helped deliver:
Civil Rights legislation
Medicare and Medicaid
Disability protections
Public housing and education
LGBTQ+ dignity
Anti-poverty programs that supported both Black and white families
This was not about “white decline.” That’s a lie sold by those who profit from division.
This was a society trying to become more human.
And it scared the hell out of those who benefit from dehumanization.
But once again, there is an attempt to stamp out the embers of empathy and destroy the kindling.
We are now living through the “re-death” of empathy. You can see it in real time:
When a Minnesota state representative, her husband, and even their dog were murdered in their home—a politically horrific act so chilling it reads like something out of Czarist Russia, where entire households were erased to send a message. A United States Senator from Utah made fun of the deaths and spread lies and disinformation, and the President refused to call the governor to express the country's condolences. It is an attempt to kill empathy.
When ICE raids in Los Angeles unfolded with National Guard troops, transforming immigrant communities into war zones. It is an attempt to kill empathy.
When a Florida sheriff said on record that he would kill protestors, and faced no consequences. It is an attempt to kill empathy.7
When Governor Ron DeSantis said it was legally acceptable to run them over with cars. It is an attempt to kill empathy.8
When a woman screamed the n-word at a Black 7-year-old child, and was rewarded with over $700,000 in donations.9 It is an attempt to kill empathy.
When Kyle Rittenhouse killed a protester, and was celebrated and enriched. It is an attempt to kill empathy.
When Christian nationalists declared empathy a “sin.” It is an attempt to kill empathy.
When Elon Musk called empathy “suicidal,” revealing a worldview where caring about others is seen as a strategic weakness. It is an attempt to kill empathy.
These are not unfortunate coincidences.
They are deliberate choices designed to remove empathy from the public sphere.
When empathy dies, cruelty thrives.
Why White Supremacy Needs Empathy to Die
Empathy interrupts domination.
It makes cruelty harder to justify.
It humanizes the “other”—and that’s the one thing white supremacy cannot afford.
“Stephen Miller doesn’t just use hatred,” As former ABC News correspondent Terry Moran said he, Miller, is “nourished” by it.
And you can see it when immigration raids are paused for optics, only to resume harder days later. You can hear it when so-called Christian leaders preach cruelty from pulpits and podcasts. When hate gets GoFundMe dollars and murder gets standing ovations.10
This isn’t new. It’s just rebranded.
What Happens When Empathy Dies (Again)?
When empathy dies:
Policy becomes weaponized
Leadership becomes authoritarian
Justice becomes punishment
And cruelty becomes a campaign strategy
We’ve seen it before.
We’re watching it now.
And if we don’t stop it, there will be a “re-death” of democracy right behind it.
Why Empathy Still Matters
Empathy alone will not save us, but the lack of empathy will doom us. All great atrocities across millennia have grown in soil devoid of empathy.
Empathy can be compared to a roux, the essential base that holds all good cooking together. Without a good roux, dishes fall apart; similarly, without empathy, necessary individual actions and systemic changes cannot occur.
Empathy isn’t extra. It’s foundational.
It doesn’t solve everything. But without it, nothing holds.
No policy. No leadership. No culture. No country.
What You Can Do Now
Name this moment for what it is—a re-death of empathy
Refuse to normalize cruelty, even when it’s branded as safety or “order.”
Protect emotional literacy, especially in schools
Interrupt policy made without compassion
Call people in, not just out—because some people are simply unpracticed in empathy
Final Word
We are not powerless.
But we are at a crossroads.
White supremacy requires empathy to die again.
If we care, we must not let it.
Don’t let them kill empathy again.
https://www.crimelibrary.org/notorious_murders/mass/lynching/lynching_2.html
https://www.crimelibrary.org/notorious_murders/mass/lynching/lynching_2.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/08/lynching-postcards-a-harrowing-documentary-about-confronting-history
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236721043_The_Black_Body_as_Souvenir_in_American_Lynching
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/flag-helped-end-lynching-us/#:~:text=From%201920%20to%201938%2C%20the,Fifth%20Avenue%20in%20their%20tracks.
https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-public-spectacle-lynchings/
https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/crime/florida-sheriff-says-deputies-will-kill-protesters-who-break-the-law-during-no-kings-day
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article308471625.html
https://www.adl.org/resources/article/white-supremacists-help-raise-hundreds-thousands-woman-who-hurled-slur-black
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/christian-sin-of-empathy-trump-era.html
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