First published in February 2021, Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides is a book that has reached thousands of people.
Even before it was published, author Terri Givens posted about the concept on LinkedIn, offering to deliver workshops on the subject. “That was back in the summer of 2020”, says Terri. “We were in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and reeling in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Racism was on people’s minds and there was a hunger for radical empathy.”
The University of California Office of the President was the first to respond to Terri’s LinkedIn post and they began six months’ worth of monthly workshops with the leadership team on the topic. “We were using the tools from the book, whilst living through an unimaginable time”, says Terri. “It still gives me chills now thinking back on sessions and their context.”
Appetite for radical empathy
The book was launched with an online event hosted by fellow author Julie Lythcott-Haims to an audience of over 350 people. Since then, Terri has been involved in more than 80 speaker events, workshops, interviews, webinars and conferences on the subject of radical empathy. The events have ranged from working with universities such as James Madison, Texas State, SUNY Albany, Arizona State, Bridgewater State and Terri’s alma mater Stanford University to name just a few. Givens has also taken radical empathy into corporations including L’Oreal, Salesforce and Citibank.
Many of the discussions and workshops have focused on the notion of belonging and explore the question of how to create a sense of inclusion within any environment. “The real impact of radical empathy”, says Terri, “is moving away from thinking about it as EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) training. This is not EDI training – it’s about looking at yourself and thinking, ‘where do I fit within the broader structure of structural discrimination?’”
‘Always done it this way’
“The problem with structural racism is the ‘we’ve always done it this way’ mentality that underpins all our actions. As Arizona State University said when I worked with them, ‘Wow we’re going to have to completely rethink the way we do hiring’.”
Getting people to rethink how they go about their hiring process is perhaps one of the most obvious areas Radical Empathy has had an impact. Nowhere is that more true than in her current post at McGill University in Canada. Taken on in summer of 2021 in the role of Provost Academic Lead and advisor on the strategy to address anti-black racism, Givens has overseen the implementation of a strategy to hire an additional 42 black faculty members by 2025 – from a starting point of 10 out of 1,700 faculty staff.
“We’re almost to that goal already”, says Terri. “But what we’ve had to do is get people to broaden their pool, to be willing to go outside of their comfort zones. It’s as simple – and as difficult – as getting people to talk to others outside of their known group of friends and colleagues at conferences, for example. There has always been a bias towards wanting to hire people from the top institutions. That’s true in academia as well as within the corporate sector. One of the things the book has helped to do is change the way companies and institutions think about recruitment and the idea of ‘merit’ or ‘excellence’. We’ve got to stop looking at the top twenty institutions. There are amazing candidates coming from all sorts of schools.”
Vulnerability
The first, and Terri says most important, tool in radical empathy is being prepared to make yourself vulnerable. “The vulnerability component really gets people thinking about their positionality. We start with where you are physically, where do you live, what does your neighbourhood look like? If I do nothing else in a workshop or a discussion, I get people to be willing to be vulnerable. That’s the key that can really begin to unlock their empathy. When people are vulnerable they are more willing to tell stories that not only help them see themselves but also let other people see them as well. It’s all about getting people thinking. To be able to question the ‘this is how we’ve always done things’ mentality, we have to start with how we think about ourselves and our own stories.”
Radical Empathy is a book wrapped and interlaced with stories and storytelling. Terri says: “That’s why I start with my family story, because I had to rethink my family story and what that meant for me.”
Impact of empathy
Reflecting on her own experience, Terri says: “In the early days of my career there were people who supported me and helped me get into leadership positions – they saw more in me than I saw in myself. Seeing people not just for who they are but also who they can be is a huge component of radical empathy. The vast majority of my mentors were white men, because those were the people in those positions at that time. They went beyond being allies.”
Another key component of radical empathy is helping people understand the impact of racism on those who have been successful. “Getting people to understand that while there are successful black people who are making it into places we haven’t been before, it is not without its personal cost. For my generation there’s all this leadership work. Many of us are on all sorts of non-profit boards and undertake a lot of volunteer service. We take on a lot of uncompensated work. If you are successful, you’re asked to do a lot.”
Self-empathy vs capitalistic hustle
The personal impact on Terri due to the success of Radical Empathy has been high. The demand for the book and for her as author of the book has been felt through the events and interviews that she has attended and continues to be invited to attend. Balancing these requests with her own self-care is something Terri has had to contend with.
“One of the things I realised is what people really want is me – which is great! But there’s only one of me and I’m a finite entity”, says Terri. “There’s this pressure in our capitalistic system to hustle hustle hustle – don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing a lot but I also have to make sure I’m creating time and space to do those things like exercise and eating right for myself too. This is also part of the radical empathy message.”
Since Radical Empathy was published in 2021 it has reached and resonated with thousands of people within academia, the corporate sector and beyond. There’s increasing interest in the subject within other areas such as medicine, with Terri having already spoken to a radical empathy-hungry group of medical students and more of the same on the agenda in the coming months. However as challenging as managing the ongoing demands for her time and work in delivering the tools of Radical Empathy has been, Terri is delighted with the reception:
“The response has been amazing. We’ve reached thousands of people in the process of talking about the book and the media attention it has got. Radical Empathy has reached a broader audience than I could have hoped for in the beginning and interest shows little sign of waning.”
Terri E. Givens is a Professor of Political Science at McGill University. She was formerly based at the University of Texas at Austin and is the founder of the Center for Higher Education Leadership.
Rebecca Megson-Smith is a writer and writing coach, founder of Ridley Writes.
You can listen to Terri speaking about the book in this episode of the Transforming Society podcast: How radical empathy can bridge racial divides.
Radical Empathy and The Roots of Racism by Terri Givens are available on Bristol University Press. Order here and here for £9.99 and £24.99.
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