What Does The Empathy Symbol Stand For?
The Empathy Symbol stands for two “sides” reaching out to each other, and opening up to try to truly understand the other’s experiences and feelings. It could be two groups of people: men and women, blacks and whites, Jews and Muslims, fundamentalist Christians and atheists, Israelis and Palestinians, gays and straights, old and young, able-bodied and disabled, immigrants and native-born, and so on; or it could be two individuals: spouses, neighbors, co-workers, etc.
The Original Empathy Symbol, created in 1973
People have asked about the origins of the empathy symbol. I was a college student, active in the anti-Vietnam war movement. I was contemplating the peace symbol I was wearing, when suddenly the idea for the empathy symbol popped into my head, full-blown. It felt as though it had been given to me, and I have felt spiritually charged to bring it to the world ever since. Deb Ellsworth
Featured Empathy Promoter
Minnesotans
What is stronger than hate, than animosity, than prejudice? Empathy. This has been proven in the last few months, with the ICE occupation in Minnesota, particularly the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs. When 3,000 ICE agents were surged into Minnesota, concentrating largely in areas where more immigrants live, the people of the Twin Cities reacted in a way that no one expected: With radical empathy. With empathy for their neighbors, and for people they did not know. How would it be to fear that you or your loved ones were going to be grabbed by federal agents and taken away, often without information as to the persons’ whereabouts, with no warning? Snatched from your job at a restaurant, from your child’s school, from your immigration court hearing, from your own home? It was a visceral response: this cannot stand! No, we must stand together, instead. We must all care for one another.
Thomas Friedman, renowned opinion writer for the New York Times, who also grew up in Minneapolis, wrote a perfect piece recently about the sum total impact of the unexpected mass empathetic movement in a concerted, true grassroots effort to counteract the violence and inhumanity of ICE. As he said:
“I spent time in my native state, Minnesota, after something else that I’d never seen in nearly 50 years: a spontaneous uprising of civic activism propelled by a single idea — I am my neighbor’s keeper, whoever he or she is and however he or she got here.
It was one of the most courageous battles ever fought by American men and women not in uniform. It was led by moms ready to donate their breast milk to strangers and dads ready to drive someone else’s kids to school because the parents, terrified of ICE agents, were too afraid to go out outdoors. It was neighbors ready to hit A.T.M.s to help out neighborhood restaurants and businesses deciding not to open — thus forgoing their income — for fear that masked ICE agents might drag away their cooks or dishwashers or desk clerks.
And the best part was this: At a time when we have a president so shameless that he insists on putting his name on every public building he can, these good Samaritans of all colors and creeds acted without fanfare. “There were hundreds of leaders of this movement,” Bill George, a longtime Twin Cities business executive, said to me, “and I don’t know a single one of their names.”
Many surely got to know one another, though, because they were all propelled by a verb I’d never heard before: “neighboring,” as in, Today I will be neighboring — going out to protect the good people next door or down the block.”
Empathy has been cited as the primary driver of human civilization, the reason we as a species have thrived. Most assuredly, and most beautifully, that has been made manifest Minnesota!
New!
Free download: B & W bookmarks for kids to color, with a simple, beautiful description of empathy. Whether you are a teacher, a caregiver or a parent, you can easily download a sheet of eight bookmarks and print them on cardstock. They would make lovely gifts for children to share with others. Find them on the Materials page.
Check out our page Empathy Symbol in Action! See how the empathy symbol is being used in many ways, from artwork to clothing to logos to inclusion in books to more. We just added a link to a beautiful empathy symbol necklace available on Etsy. There are so many ways to express and share the core value of empathy!
Featured Products!
Show everyone your commitment to a more empathetic world. Our newest way to do so is with our 8″ car magnet. You can promote empathy every time you hit the road! And we are offering smaller 1.5″ buttons and three-inch sew-on patches, as well as individually made copper empathy symbol necklaces. You can also get the image for you to use for free however you might like.
Empathy News
Empathy in the news Elon Musk has created a social media firestorm with his assertion on the Joe Rogan show on 2/28 that empathy is a fundamental weakness of Western civilization. See our blog and Facebook page with our response, and read about it on CNN and other media sites.
For more information about the empathy movement, read Empathy Magazine –an online collection of the latest news about empathy from around the world. Curated by Edwin Rutsch
Join the conversation on the Empathy Symbol Facebook Page!
Check out our Facebook page, and Follow and join the conversation. Posts about the value of empathy in our polarized world; how to promote empathy; and especially posts to further our own empathy toward, and understanding of, others.
Using the Empathy Symbol
A German artist named Caro created this piece of art using the empathy symbol. Others are incorporating the empathy symbol into their logos (with our permission obtained.) We are looking for artists and craftspeople to help spread the value of empathy via items they create–jewelry, mugs, phone case covers… Please see below for how to obtain our permission to do so, under the Creative Commons License.
Here’s how you can use the Empathy Symbol
Use of Empathy Symbol is subject to a Creative Commons License. Find out more.
