On Righteous Indignation
In the discussions about morality/ethics I've overheard, or been a part of over the years, there's a test scenario that comes up fairly often:
"What would you do if you walked in on <important, and often female/young person in one's life> being <heinous crime of violation/violence> and you had quick access to a weapon?"
The premise of the question is meant to see if you would try to allow the legal process to work, or if rage would overtake you, and you would enact justice on the spot.
Over the years, when I hear discussions like this, there is often an agreed upon subtext that emerges. The subtext is that, while allowing the police and legal system to work through the process is seen as the intellectually correct course of action, the real action that gives social currency is the one where you say "I guess I'd get put in jail for life then."
In that scenario, the people who express their willingness to take immediate justice, and go to jail for life get pretty immediate empathy. In fact, I don't remember a time where someone in the discussion had a viscerally negative reaction to someone expressing that they would do that.
It's like there's an instinctively "correct" reaction when obviously heinous injustice has occurred. Protect the innocent, and vindicate them immediately if you failed protect them.
That instinct, I think, comes from an archetypal, evolutionary type of empathy: an empathy for “me and mine.” We are easily able to put ourselves in the shoes of those that we love, or those just like us.
This is an informative instinct, because if you apply that reaction to other scenarios, it can hint at where your biases may lie.
As I observe some people in my social circles expressing visceral disgust at property damage during the protests in Minneapolis, I can’t help but think of this scenario.
Where must one’s moral compass lie in order to be genuinely outraged at property being damaged, but not outraged about the underlying injustice against people of color by them being killed by police?
The protests in Minneapolis, when viewed through this lens, are actually subdued forms of aggression, given the lopsided nature of the injustices.
If your gut instinct is to be upset about the buildings, and the cars, and the businesses, what does that say about your ability to empathize with those who are different from you? What does it say about your sense of justice?
Racism isn’t a light switch. It’s not like a pregnancy test.
It’s a spectrum of behaviors. It is a complex mix of assumptions, values, and actions that require effort to recognize and dispel.
If you aren’t doing that work, or worse, if you don’t think you need to do that work, then you will never be better, and you are part of the problem.
