Tackling London's empathy gap

Tackling London's empathy gap

As we make our way to London after the inferno at Grenfell Tower, the class divide weighs heavily on our minds

In Greek mythology, the chimera was a fire-breathing creature with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. Today its name refers to anything that is made up of very different parts: a collection of things that don't belong together.

It's an apt way to describe how I felt after graduating from university. I explained in Checking my Privilege and Asian Girl, English Boy that I had a very simple childhood. My family was poor, but so was everyone else. My parents were immigrants, but so was everyone else. There was a consistency that precluded any envy, tension, or confusion about my identity. I was Bangladeshi and I was poor. Hey ho.

alt=”“> Balfron Tower in my home borough is an example of social housing in London

However, after graduating, I entered a different world that is only seen by people with social mobility. This genteel world of soft carpets and elegant writing was inhabited by people who were so different from me: middle-class, sophisticated, wealthy. In their midst, my accent, which had already been honed from years at university, was further rehabilitated.

Over time, I became a kind of chimera myself: once poor but now not, once religious and now insecure. My life spanned two worlds and from my rocky pedestal I glimpsed the abyss between.

It is this divide that has caused so much of the tension we see on our screens and on our streets today. That's why there is a lack of empathy. This is why working-class students hurl thoughtless insults at the rich and why Kensington residents, after seeing lives ravaged by fire, seem most concerned about the price of their property.

"We paid a lot of money to live here and we worked hard for it. Now these people come and don't even pay the service fee."

"I'm very sad that people have lost their homes, but there are a lot of people here who have bought apartments and now they're going to see the value go down. It's going to make things worse. And it opens a can of worms in the housing market."

Thankfully, some elites recognize that they cannot truly know what life is like for the British masses. I was reassured when I read an article a few years ago by Alex Derber, an Old Etonian and old colleague of mine. In it, Alex acknowledges his privilege and admits that he and his colleagues cannot understand what life is really like for low-income people.

"When I attended Eton in the 1990s, students practiced fox hunting on bicycles and went sport diving. Some dined annually with the Queen. I toasted a Saudi king and taught lessons with Prince William."

Men in Alex's world may feel theoretical empathy toward the lower classes, but this rarely translates into real kinship. They may acknowledge that life is hard for a working single mother or a poor black teenager, but they rarely understand it. How can they if their paths never cross, let alone connect with those of the “others”?

Clearly, the task of closing the empathy gap is deeply complex. The solution includes investing in education, expanding access to elite sectors and improving social inclusion. These are long-term goals that will take years, even decades. So what can you do in the meantime?

I think the “chimeras” among us play an important role in closing the empathy gap. These chimeras have the language and experience that allow them to communicate with people across the spectrum. It's probably true that Old Etonian and former Prime Minister David Cameron can work a room better than London Mayor Sadiq Khan - but would Cameron work in an inner city school or London mosque?

Sadiq Khan, the son of a bus driver, has a broader life experience and can do so much with it when he is allowed into the right spaces.

alt=“The Offices of London Mayor Sadiq Khan”>DreamtimeThe offices of London Mayor Sadiq Khan

This is not to say that everyone from the working class can be an advocate for change – or vice versa. I recently watched an election blind date with Cambridge professor Mary Beard and nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow, and was annoyed when the latter espoused the old adage "I was poor, and if I did it, anyone can." There's a name for it, Peter: survivorship bias.

Caveat aside, I strongly believe that increasing the visibility of chimeras (if I can name them) would help close the empathy gap. This doesn't mean just putting talking heads of different colors on TV (there are brown people who were born privileged too); it means looking for people like Sadiq Khan who truly understand both worlds.

It means finding the educated sons and daughters of workers, seamstresses, cleaners and janitors and empowering them to take an active role in change, whether through law, politics, journalism or activism.

At a time when the Prime Minister of the UK is literally running away from our city's worst problems, we urgently need more leaders who understand the real challenges facing our multicultural but deeply divided country.

Mission statement: Dreamstime

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