Negroes in the south

 "Two months ago...when something happened to the Negroes in the south I said 'That's their business not mine.' I know how wrong I was."- Emmett Till's Mother

I feel like this quote accurately represents the outlook of most people in the world.  We primarily operate under the idea that if an issue doesn't affect us or will not touch us, then there is not an issue.  We struggle in empathizing with others.  For example, hunger is not an American problem, extreme hunger that is, and therefore they do not empathize with the African food problem.  And I do that a lot with other people’s struggles.  I assumed that the issue in Syria isn't that big, and that things are fine because what happens there doesn't affect me.  But if you were to ask me about the problem of homelessness and bad education in Uganda, I would be visibly distressed about it.  And this is something that consumes the world, we do not build empathy for the other because the problem is not ours.

Isabelle King

12^th grade, City College