Oaklanders for Peace > Oakland Peacekeepers Empathy Interviews
 

• Mutima Imani

• Cephus Johnson

• Elouise D Oliver

• more...

Mutima Imani On Empathy
 

Clip1:  Mutima Imani on Empathy Introduction
 

• Introduction

  • Reverend Mutima Imani, Social Justice Minister, Faces of the East Bay

  • Church of East Bay Church of Religious Sciences

  • Peace Keepers for the night of the Mehserle sentencing

  • A peaceful response

  • I like the concept of empathy

    • tolerance and empathy

    • tolerance - I put up with you,

    • empathy is deeper - I see you as a whole person

    • it's opening the heart and seeing you.

    • the practice of empathy is open heartedness, open mindedness , feeling you as I feel myself

    • broader more beautiful and deeper

    • moving toward oneness

• The history of your life, where did you learn empathy?

  • father was a lifer in the air force

  • we lived overseas

  • learned empathy by being in different cultures and feeling accepted.

  • learned to read the empathic feelings

  • walls versus curiosity

  • suspending judgments of others, developing curiosity of who they are.

  • I practice that as a diversity trainer

  • drop into my heart and extend love

  • Empathetic heart - no shame, no blame, no guilt

  • we're going to learn together

  • Empathetic heart - your children are our children

• What does empathy feel like?

  • it's a feeling of security, curiosity, excitement, relaxed energetic

  • curiosity - wow, who are you

  • self esteem is at the bottom of it

  • not putting up those walls

Clip 2:  Mutima Imani on Empathy and Justice

• What's relationship between Empathy and Justice?

  • justice needs to be defined some more

  • we're talking about Social Justice

  • Criminalization of poor people

  • example the Weed and Seed Programs - street sweeps

  • If you don't have money your criminalized

  • Marijuana given sever sentences

  • Empathetic heart - instead of judging, think and feel

    • stories of nephew with pound of cocaine

    • taking responsibility

    • 40 years for pound of cocaine

    • discriminatory laws

  • severity of different sentencing

  • let's be more empathetic

  • We're all in this together.

   

Clip 3:  Mutima Imani on Building a Culture of Empathy
 

• How to create a Culture of Empathy?

  • Forgiveness is at the heart of empathy

  • poem, I forgive you America and Oakland

  • I forgive you on the fear based on color

  • removes victim-hood

  • democracy that includes all of us

  • it brings empathetic listening

  • forgiveness first workshops

• Metaphor of empathy?

  • A Universal mother and father

  • Seeing each child as your child

• Conclusion

  • Peacekeepers Mission

  • Part of the peacekeepers mission is to build relationship and have empathy for the police as part of the community

  • there's been a divide between the police and the community

  • police are note empathetic to the social conditions that people live in

  • and the community are not empathetic to the police and what they are there for.

  • want to come together to create community dialogs

Clip 4: Mutima Imani on Empathy and the Oakland Peace Keepers
 

• Peacekeepers Mission

• Part of the peacekeepers mission is to build relationship and have empathy for the police as part of the community. I believe that there's been a divide between the police and the community and that it's sort of set up martial law, where the police are not empathetic to the social conditions that people live in, and that the people in our community are not empathetic to the police's responsibility and what they are there for. So that we can come together and begin community dialogs that would be empathetic on both parts,  and that it would be a healing in the community

Cephus Johnson 'Uncle Bobby' On Empathy
 

Part of the way that empathy has been truly expressed is with two people, of total opposites. My experience that I can share is that, here I was given the opportunity to listen to an older white woman share here experience in police brutality that she experience personally and how it impacted her to recognize that through this is experience that I never want to go through, but yet somehow transported herself tot he position of an African American male experiencing that same trauma but to 10 degree higher. Had promoted her to recognize how painful that may be for us as African Americans males to actually want to take part in a movement that can bring about police brutality being resolved. So empathy is an important aspect of this movement moving forward. Not just black people feeling the pain, but people of other colors also feeling the same pain and standing to help bring about the change.

Cephus Johnson (Uncle Bobby) - "Empathy is really significant about this whole thing"

"Edwin talks about the word empathy. Very powerful when you really think about it because, the way I understand the word, empathy is basically putting myself in another persons shoes. Seeing if I can experience and feel what they have experienced.  And that is what this is about. I think this represents that biggest component of this movement, and that is, we're going to stand in each others issues and work together to try to bring about some form of change. 

So to me empathy is really significant about this whole thing. You know it's interesting that we talk about that.  The greatest joy I had just recently in this room was when Mutima said, 'Pick somebody different, that you don't even know, that's totally different from yourself, and you sit in front of this person, and you begin to dialogue.' You know what I'm saying, I'm an African American man, raised up in the hood and have a whole different outlook on life, and I have to sit in front of an older white woman, you know what I'm saying? And try to relate - that's powerful, because what we can actually do then, is we are actually transforming. In reality, I got a whole bunch of drivers that I bring into my life and never ever be able to connect to a person totally opposite from me.

So when we begin to shed that, changes take place and that's what this is all about. Allowing us to share with people we don't event know and are totally different, and we're drawn together because we're all asking for the same thing and that's what's so key about this, and that is that the system become just, so that we can all feel that we are part of.  And the only way for that to happen is that the we all got to have some form of empathy, and yet be able to transform so that we can connect and we can all live together and be happy. I hope that happens on earth." Cephus Johnson

Elouise D Oliver on the Importance of Empathy

• Introduction

  • Elouise D Oliver, Senior Minister East Bay Church or Religious Science

  • Best place to Worship in says East Bay Express

  • Having a good time

  • 79 years old

• Living in a community versus in industrialization

  • after several generations of industrialization we've lost empathy

  • people need to understand the police

  • police may see community as making their life harder

  • talking about empathy may help bridge that gap. That is my hope, that this conversation will be able to help people to understand. You need to be able to talk about it.

• Young people and the aging process

  • we don't want to see images of what's real, ie getting older

  • a lot of what we do is denial about what's really going on in life

• Empathy means the ability to feel what somebody else feels, As long as you don't acknowledge your own pain, you can not empathize with somebody else's pain. We have a great drug epidemic, it's all about numbing their pain, so we walk around in denial all the time about how we really feel and that suppresses the empathy. Because you're not empathizing with yourself.

• The culture we live in seems to goes out of it's way to keep us from feeling what's really going on.

• Worked as an LVN and gave pain medication. One patient wanted to feel the pain.

• Teenage years and difficulty. 

• How to build a culture of empathy?

  • Allow people to cry. Crying we are human and will feel what the other feels. When crying they are feeling their own pain. Now real empathy is happening. Just watching that person in pain, they are starting to empathize now and we don't want to do that. If you can remember your own pain and your own suffering, your own feelings. I can empathize with anyone because I'm a mother. What I know is that every person has a mother.

  • I don't have to figure out his pain, I can think of him through my own pain, because I'm a mother.

  • If this were my son, I'd want mercy, healing and care.

  • Empathy is like what I feel for my child

Wilson Riles on Empathy (Video on Vimeo)

• Introduction

  • former member of City council

  • math teacher, principle

  • father was state wide elected official

• Empathy - how to create a culture of empathy?

  • skill of empathy is critical

  • question is not about empathy - how do we create a culture of empathy?

  • our culture is anti empathy - individualist

  • culture develops over time

  • difficult

  • empathy is experiential

  • question is the process?

    • may require a deeper understanding of slavery, depression

  • rejection of outsiders

    • President will talk about competition. is unempathic

    • we need to authentic

  • we need a deeper and better way to approach building a culture of empathy

• 4:00 You are concerned about it being just talk and no action?

  • words are co-opted by the media

  • nonviolence has been co-opted - seen as sacrifice now, not true meaning

  • fearful we'll put empathy out there and it will be co-opted - corrupted

  • encourage empathy in an experiential way

• 6:20 What can we do?

  • the peace churches would help

  • work with their our folks

  • need to do internal work

  • institutions would work with others and actualize it

  • concept of God - something that could not be named, beyond;

    • can't be encapsulated

    • logic

    • what could be explained with meaning

    • is internal

  • empathy is similar to that

    • can only guide people in the way of meditation, your own experience

    • the pointer is not the thing

    • need an internal search

    • you have to find it yourself, we can only walk with them

    • that's where the emphasis needs to be

• 8:40 We set the goal and Everyone needs to do their own internal search and journey?

  • exactly, stories become important way to guide people

  • wisdom stories

  • building the stories around empathy is where we should start

• 9:40 Final thoughts?

  • just bringing some focus is important

  • caries some humility

  • it's a path that we invite people to walk with us

  • I appreciate what your doing
     

  

 More

		Michael Walker spoken word artist Tell Me about Empathy? for empathy, you shouldn't wait until a mother loses her son to a senseless murder you should be talking empathy before.  have dialogue with police to understand our children you can't have empathy if you have strangers governing a community You want empathy before? otherwise it just a band aid empathy, I made a mistake and I got caught doing it how can my people ban together and fix my problem You value Empathy? I value respect if you have respect you won't need empathy most time when someone is murdered that's not the time to say how can I be empathetic it's hard to be empathetic when I have my child murdered if your murdering people in the streets in cold blood don't ask for empathy ask for a justice system that's going to try you as a human being then there will be respect when the police respect our children Then they won't need empathy What is empathy? What is empathy? If I beat up a cop, they're not going to be empathetic respect us and then we can come to a dialog Obama says there's an empathy Deficit? Obama should have told people we need to respect each other as humans If  I respect you, then I can be empathetic to your situation Without respect you can't even have empathy We need to respect the environment we see cops now in riot gear, are they prepared to show empathy? every office should take a humanities course how do I humble myself before a 1,000 angry people that's a skill that should be taught
		Cephus Johnson 'Uncle Bobby' Empathy Interview, So empathy is an important aspect of this movement moving forward. Not just black people feeling the pain, but people of other colors also feeling the same pain and standing to help bring about the change.
		"Edwin talks about the word empathy. Very powerful when you really think about it because, the way I understand the word, empathy is basically putting myself in another persons shoes. Seeing if I can experience and feel what they have experienced.  And that is what this is about. I think this represents that biggest component of this movement, and that is, we're going to stand in each others issues and work together to try to bring about some form of change.    So to me empathy is really significant about this whole thing. You know it's interesting that we talk about that.  The greatest joy I had just recently in this room was when Mutima said, 'Pick somebody different, that you don't even know, that's totally different from yourself, and you sit in front of this person, and you begin to dialogue.' You know what I'm saying, I'm an African American man, raised up in the hood and have a whole different outlook on life, and I have to sit in front of an older white woman, you know what I'm saying? And try to relate - that's powerful, because what we can actually do then, is we are actually transforming. In reality, I got a whole bunch of drivers that I bring into my life and never ever be able to connect to a person totally opposite from me.   So when we begin to shed that, changes take place and that's what this is all about. Allowing us to share with people we don't event know and are totally different, and we're drawn together because we're all asking for the same thing and that's what's so key about this, and that is that the system become just, so that we can all feel that we are part of.  And the only way for that to happen is that the we all got to have some form of empathy, and yet be able to transform so that we can connect and we can all live together and be happy. I hope that happens on earth." Cephus Johnson
		Eric Butler on Empathy: Oscar Grant - Mehserle Oakland Verdict Protest Preparation Tell Me About empathy? Restorative Justice councilor for Oakland Youth liaison for high school Trying to organize and educate kid without violence it works well with empathy I connect with them In the school I teach restorative justice play a role of councilor I empathize with them Restorative Justice is coming from a place of empathy instead of punishment How you learned about empathy? Hurricane Katrina survivor why was there no support for us? approach the situation in a positive way being empathetic with people over me walking in someone's shoes understanding where they come from understand the layers and layers that come before How to Build a Culture of Empathy? Educate, educate, educate we have a me first culture in Oakland the people that know better have to get out there and talk to our kids
		Rashad Lee on Empathy: Oscar Grant - Mehserle Oakland Verdict Protest Preparation Tell Me About empathy? here at city of Oakland I work with entry specialists work with Seta active in city here for the security meeting for the Oscar Grant protest create a positive direction How does empathy relate? put them in other persons shoes it's a chance to vent rioting is not good empathy in this situation A time you experienced empathy? Kadafi Foundation helped me when my brother was killed in West Oakland A lot of me left, My heart became a ice box Kadafi Foundation reached out let me use my words other's put themselves in my shoes I now talk with families that have a loss you are not alone empathy - I love that word empathy is stronger than sympathy place yourself into someone it can help our city come back How to build a culture of empathy? Education street degrees learning empathy go a long way the next mayor should stand on that Strong give that to everyone I love that everyone puts themselves in everyone's shoes
		Isaac Taggart City of Oakland Empathy Interview, You have to have empathy and common sense.
		Todd Walker on Empathy: Oscar Grant - Mehserle Oakland Verdict Protest Preparation Tell Me About empathy? with restoring Intercity Peace deal with a lot of the violence want community to get together logic - teach them how to think listen Listening is Empathy? yes, I listen in meetings listening will get you a long ways the kids need someone to listen