‘I don’t know what it’s like to be a black male from New Orleans’

I don’t have 20/20 vision – I never have. I can’t read street signs from far away. I’m nearsighted in both my vision, as well as my understanding of societal disparities. Aren’t we all?

If it affects us directly, we are very aware. If it doesn’t directly affect us or the people surrounding us, we are naturally less equipped, and oftentimes less willing, to understand the problem.

The further away someone is from an issue, the smaller that issue seems. The less we know about that issue, the simpler the solution seems. The gap between what is occurring and what we are aware of across this country and across the world is huge. We need to change that. Starting with us – here.

Minority and majority groups need to be able to empathize with each other: people of different races, economic backgrounds, cultural practices, political standings. The students who have lunches everyday need to be able to empathize with the ones who don’t. But how do we create a society where this level of understanding is so abundant? It’s easier for students to evoke empathy for their classmate without a lunchbox, but what about the lunch-less boy across state lines? Can they see him?

The answer is no, they obviously can’t see him directly, but this is no excuse for ignoring that he is there. Lack of vision is not an excuse for not trying to understand what he is going through. It is our job as a global community to be aware of even the problems that we do not face ourselves.

I am a white female from Roswell, Georgia. Asking me to understand what it is like to be a black male in New Orleans is equivalent to asking me to read a street sign that is 437 miles away. I already told you, I’m nearsighted. It wasn’t until I packed my bags, drove those 437 miles, and slipped on Efuntola (Funton) Akinlana’s shoes that I traded my ignorance for empathy.

Funton was my pair of glasses, and he was more than that. He was two hearing aids, a hip replacement and pacemaker. It was raw conversation that fostered our learning. We asked difficult questions and gave difficult answers. This is what it feels like to be Funton, he showed me. This is how growing up as a black male in New Orleans shaped me into the person I am today, and this is how anti-black racism affects me, he showed me. I listened.

And I asked more questions and challenged him to think in ways he had never thought of before, while he was doing the same for me. That is what we need to do to achieve a society that is marked by empathy. We need to listen to what each other has to say, and more than that, we need our actions to reflect our empathy.

Our listening worked in both ways – as I learned about what it’s like to be a black male from New Orleans he learned about what it’s like to be a white female from Roswell. We surprised each other. We taught each other. We continue teaching each other. Now I will never understand fully what it is like to have a skin color, a gender, a home that is not my own, but I cannot bring myself closer to the problem of disparity until I try.

We can try by going to guest lectures about racism, religious discrimination, gender and sexuality, the cycle of poverty, the global refugee crisis, the effect of poor health on an at-risk population. Join a multicultural student union. Read about a multicultural student union. Take upon the issues of a multicultural student union as your own. Our schools, communities, and the world-wide web offer an abundance of resources for us to bring ourselves closer to the issues others face.

To dismantle the structure that severs our society into “have’s” and “have-not’s,” we need to make a conscious effort to act on our empathy each day, especially those of us who benefit from the systems at play. There is a gulf between us, and it will remain until we work to remove it.

Tulane University offers an abundance of classes to enlighten students on social, cultural, economic and political issues that divide our society.

As a citizen of the world I have to educate myself on all the issues that affect those around me. This is why I make friends. This is why I collect books. This is why I read articles. This is why I study. I am searching for greater empathy and new ways to act on this empathy.

We can’t all pack our bags and drive 437 miles to find greater empathy, but the good news is that we don’t have to. Your local superstore carries reading glasses. You can even order a pair online. Get some – it’s time we started seeing each other through the right lenses.