On Wednesday, March 9th, Dr. Terri Givens of the University of Texas at Austin delivered a talk on her recent book, Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides, to an audience of nearly 70 students, faculty, and staff.
Dr. Givens opened the talk with a synopsis of her life, especially her experiences growing up and receiving education as a black woman in the ‘70s and ‘80s and went on to lay out a theory of “radical empathy.” Radical empathy, Givens argued, is composed of two types of empathy: emotional empathy, or feeling how another person feels, and cognitive empathy, or understanding how another person sees the world. Dr. Givens argued that the application of “radical empathy” is the most effective route to bridging racial divides and eliminating racism in the workplace, the academy, and beyond.
If you’d like to watch the lecture, you can do so here.
