INTERCULTURAL EMPATHY: GLOBAL PEACE READING
On November 13, a tragic series of terrorist attacks killed at least 129 people in Paris. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attacks. In the aftermath of the terror, governments are trying to figure out how to move forward- how to respond to ISIS, how to handle the Syrian refugee crisis, how to ensure safety for their nation's people. Many citizens of the world, however, are left with their own challenging task- to try to piece together some understanding of the senseless violence, mourn those who were lost, and still preserve a prevailing faith in humanity in the world.
To facilitate this healing in the community, the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures organized a Reading for Global Peace. On Friday, November 20 at noon, students, faculty members and staff from all parts of campus came together in the basement of St. Mary's Hall to share pieces that resonated with them in the wake of the acts of terrorism in Beirut, Paris, Nigeria and many other parts of the world.
Attending this event, I figured, would not only be a positive experience, but could also help foster intercultural empathy, an important component of global social capital. This event allowed me to "increase the frequency of [my] interactions with colleagues around the world" and "use storytelling to open myself up more", two activities for developing intercultural empathy.
Before the reading began, Fatemeh Keshavarz, Director of the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies provided the context for the event. "This is not a political debate," she reminded the audience. "We are not going to be able to find a solution... But we can as human beings connect with each other."
Throughout the next hour, the audience did just that.
The event functioned in an "open-mic" format. Any individual wishing to share thoughts, poetry or another type of reading was welcome to come to the podium and share his or her piece. If the piece was not in English, the reader was asked to provide an accompanying translation. The audience listed to works, by amateur and professional writers, in languages ranging from English to French to Spanish to Persian to German. As I listened to the pieces, authored by individuals from across the globe, I noticed the universality of the themes- ideas of war, peace, unity, humanity, and healing all re-emerging.
The Takeaways
This event was very moving and powerful. In learning of how people across different cultures process tragedy, I built my intercultural empathy. During this event, a particular irony also struck me; while recent terrorist attacks have spurred a resurging wave of zenophobia and Islamophobia, many of the pieces read in French were by francophone authors from the Middle East. Selections by Abdellatif Laabi, a renowned Morrocan poet, and Lebanese francophone writers were shared. I am not sure if these pieces were selected intentionally by the readers to make a point, but the subtle impact was apparent.
Another sticking point for me related to intercultural empathy was our country's (and the world's) lack of empathy for non-Western instances of tragedy. While many around the world demonstrated an outpouring of support and solidarity with Paris, there was little talk of the acts of terror that took lives in Beruit and Nigeria that same week. Why is that? Is it easier for us to identify with western countries? Have we come to expect violence in the "primitive" cultures of Africa and the Middle East? Do we weigh some lives as more important than others? Examine these cultural biases is important to building empathy towards individuals of all cultures. In order to do so, I challenged myself to reflect on my own biases and then to do research on the events that had not garnered as much media coverage. In doing so, I not only built my intercultural empathy but also my global intellectual capital as I broadened my understanding of current events.
