> Were I African American [...] I might feel differently.
Why can't you incorporate women's issues into your world view without having daughters? Or civil rights issues without being black?
Most people are most sympathetic to the plight of themselves and perhaps their children. The GP has daughters and is presumably not African-American.
I wonder if you're talking about an attitude that you think the OP ought to have, whereas he/she is describing the attitude that he/she does have.
Yes, of course I am. My question was rhetorical. It sounds like that person understands that there are serious race issues in the criminal justice system but is willing to overlook them for his own self interest. I think we'd all be better off if we cared a bit more about people who are different from us.
How does one follow from the other? I also have daughters and it hasn't affected my view of prisons one way or the other.
Well it's perfectly normal for a father to be paternalistic.
When my daughter was born, my mom asked if my views on the death penalty (which I have historically opposed) have changed. When I said no, she asked "if someone hurt her, wouldn't you want them to die?" And I had to think about this, because yes, I probably would. But what I want and what is right aren't necessarily the same thing.
Our entire justice system is fucked, at every possible level. If I put my daughter in the shoes of every victim out there, how would that possibly help me see things more objectively and make things better? You need to think outside your experience.
Cut the guy some slack. It's perfectly natural to prefer those you are family with.
Most people ought to instead focus on cultivating sympathy, which is the intellectual realization of another's suffering, and turning that sympathy into action.
If I stub my toe you don't have to feel that pain to empathize it, you have to understand what it feels like to suddenly be in pain. Sympathy in that situation would only require recognizing and pitying someone who is in pain, without necessarily understanding it.
Merriam-webster defines empathy(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy):
> the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings,
Notice the 'and vicariously experiencing'. If there is no experience, it is not empathy. Stop using the word to mean something it is simply not.
As a father of daughters I am personally glad that prisons exist and fully understand the issues with incarceration, but gladly accept the trade-off (like many moral dilemmas the optimal choice may differ from person to person). Were I African American and more likely to be wrongly imprisoned, I might feel differently.