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1/ When I was a Christian, we believed that we were persecuted. Any time there was a high profile killing of a Christian, we heard about it. Any bad thing that happened to Christians was fed through a narrative that the world was out to get us because they hated us.

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I have a lot of love for you, your uncomfortable questions and openness. Your tweets and polls over the last days have come across as unexpectedly insensitive. Empathise first. Intellectualise second.

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raphbaph.lens

@raphbaph

May 31, 2020

Replying to @Aella_Girl

i think you’re avoiding the very intense and difficult emotions this triggers by trying to bring it to an intellectual level and talk about „data“. the pain, anguish and shame that are the result of slavery and exploitation are real. unless we deal with that, there’ll be no prog

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I'm really torn about this. I believe all emotions are valid, and going "but akshually" with data often has downsides. But in this case I feel like there's so so much empathy and so little data discussion I feel obliged to be the weight I see missing on the scales

6:38 PM · Jun 1, 2020

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and

has a great article on 'advocates vs. mediators' -- precisely analogous with "empathize vs. intellectualize" -- in which she describes the ways communities falter when either is missing: theunitofcaring.tumblr.com/post/178368078 I think it's important that there always exist mediators.

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I feel you. I'm not saying don't have the convo, you should have it. I'm saying the delivery can be more empathetic. People are actively being traumatised by the situ. atm. Gentleness is kind. A poll about rich black parents/white parents followed by this thread felt hardhearted

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A thing I have been thinking is, it also has to be really unpleasant and stressfull to feel oneself or one’s group widely hated or dehumanized by the society. If it seems the situation is not as grim as they think, cannot that be exactly the compassionate thing to say?