Abstract
Terri E. Givens is a political scientist and entrepreneur who has worked in U.S. higher education for many decades. In this hopeful book, her engaging autobiography provides a framework for understanding radical empathy: “This book interlaces my life, my research, and the story of my family to describe the impact of the institutionalized racism that has plagued this country since the first Africans landed on American shores” (p. 21). Givens notes that she wrote this memoir for two reasons: “to take a closer look at my life … and how I had made my way down my own path to radical empathy” and “to find a way to bridge the racial divides I have seen not only in the US, but also in my research in Europe” (p. 151). She not only explains radical empathy, she lives it.
Building on the concepts of emotional empathy (feeling how another person feels) and cognitive empathy (understanding how another sees the world), Givens describes the six-step path of radical empathy: (1) a willingness to be vulnerable; (2) becoming grounded in who you are; (3) opening yourself to the experiences of others; (4) practicing empathy; (5) taking action; and (6) creating change and building trust.
Chapter 3, “My family's story: The isolation of internalized oppression,” is “all about a willingness to be vulnerable” (p. 39). Her family was isolated from other Black families, including her own extended family. The daughter of an Air Force airman and a seamstress who suffered from borderline personality disorder, Givens grew up in the predominately White city of Spokane, Washington. Her family was Roman Catholic, one of the few Black families in the local parish. As someone who viewed herself as an overachiever, Givens often experienced imposter syndrome, a lack of confidence, and perfectionism—all symptoms of internalized oppression. Not only was she the first in her family to go to graduate school and to earn a PhD, but she was also often the first woman, first African American, or first African American woman to hold a position at the schools at which she worked.
Throughout her book, Givens embodies and inspires radical empathy. For example, in Chapter 4, “Racism and health disparities,” Givens interweaves the story of her father's death from cardiovascular disease at the age of 73 years with statistics about the effect of discrimination, bias, and internalized oppression upon Black people, including rates of cardiovascular disease, pregnancy-related death, and premature birth. To bring about change, Givens started the group “Take Back the Trail” in Austin, Texas in order to encourage women to exercise and discuss the hurdles they faced in exercising and eating healthy.
In Chapter 5, “Finding empathy in the academy,” the author deftly illustrates the need to examine “divides that impact our ability to connect with each other” (p. 98). She recounts her path from Spokane public schools to Gonzaga Preparatory School to Stanford University to studying in France and then to graduate school at UCLA, where she faced challenges, but also experienced empathy and support from a few key mentors. Throughout her educational journey, she worried about how others and society in general defined and judged her. She became a professor at the University of Washington and then at the University Texas at Austin but left because the situation for Black women was not improving there. Givens, now herself a mentor, founded Brighter Higher Ed in order to improve access and opportunities for students, faculty, and administrators.
Most of the chapters in this well written book end with a list of questions that lead from reflection to action, which in turn creates change. As Givens notes, “Radical empathy requires that we move beyond focusing on personal growth to focusing on what is good for our community and for our country” (p. 34). She also notes that radical empathy is an ongoing practice, not an end in and of itself. The book's provocative and challenging questions and its suggested reading list should be embedded within social work education and professional development.
