Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Never a True Recognition of the Other
I do not think we can ever truly recognize or understand Others because unless we literally stand in their shoes, we can not know what they are going through. And we can not understand what someone is going through even more if their life is radically different than ours because we cannot even begin to comprehend those things that are everyday occurrences for them. Something that may be typical to their life could be so different from our lives that it is incomprehensible to us. In order to truly recognize oppression, we have to acknowledge our own privilege and view those who do not have this same privilege as us with empathy, or the goal to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, not just showing compassion or pity for another person. Also, I believe because it is an attempt to put yourself in another person’s shoes, that means that you will never truly be in their shoes, and that you can never truly recognize their lives and the oppression they experience.
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I agree with you that we can never fully understand someone like those we saw in the virtual reality. However, I think it takes us a step closer to understanding, and better helps the viewer try and understand what they could be suffering. It takes us to a world we never see, and although it's through a screen, the viewer is able to commiserate with the subject of the video.
ReplyDeleteI agree that virtual reality doesn't lead to a complete understanding. But I do think that it would be helpful if many more people participated in it. Some people haven't even thought of what it's really like to live outside of the United States. Therefore, VR would be a good start, but not enough for us to really grasp what it's like to live in their environments.
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