Empathy is modulated by ethnicity and race

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We are generally more empathic toward other members of our racial or ethnic group:

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/26/8525

I think this both explains and is evidence for the implicit racial biases that plague American society. If you are a white person, then you are generally going to have greater empathy for another white person than a black person. If you do not account for this, then this empathy gap will cause you to treat the other white person better than the black person, even though you may be unaware of the gap. This explains why, for example, black people tend to receive longer sentences than white people for the same crimes, at least partly:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ ... han_whites

This happens, also on a different level, with animals we have much more empathy for those we'd keep as pets as compared to something we'd buy at the meat checkout and an even wider gap with the thing with 26 legs making its way along the bathroom wall.

I give our society credit that we're doing everything we can to bridge that gap. Sadly on one hand you have the effort to bridge and heal, on the other hand you have the agitators who get their power off of victim politics - the later thankfully getting increased criticism on both left and right.

Understandibly we're still only fifty or so years out of some considerably dark times with respect to race and for those of us born decades afterward it can feel very strange or alien to us. I think we're already seeing a lot of positive changes in the empathy gap (almost everywhere I look when I'm out we're looking quite post-racial) and this will continue to improve as we're able to bridge old resentments and the lingering inequities. Being able to peaceably, even enjoyably, interact with most members of a race tends to build the desired empathy. Segregation from them hurts that, also walking on egg-shells too much can do the same sort of damage.

Hope all of that doesn't sound too disconnected - there's just a lot involved here.

What happens if you're mixed race then?

This is not true with me.

I'm more empathetic when Ive experienced what others have experienced, no matter what race/ethnicity.