As Black people, we're very used to empathizing with the world through white people's eyes, because they're the protagonists. I know what it's like to look at the world and empathize with Superman because I spent my whole life doing that.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the experience of Black individuals empathizing with predominantly white narratives and characters in society, illustrating a broader commentary on representation.
Rege-Jean Page articulates the struggle of Black individuals who often find themselves relating to stories and characters of white protagonists, highlighting a lack of representation in media and culture. This experience fosters a unique understanding of empathy that transcends one’s own identity, emphasizing the importance of diverse narratives in creating a more inclusive world.
In practice
In discussions about representation in media, this quote can illustrate the challenges faced by marginalized communities.
But when the self speaks to the self, who is speaking? The entombed soul, the spirit driven in, in, in to the central catacomb; the self that took the veil and left the world -- a coward perhaps, yet somehow beautiful, as it flits with its lantern restlessly up and down the dark corridors.
Being is seeing in the human dimension.
All resistance is a rupture with what is. And every rupture begins, for those engaged in it, through a rupture with oneself.
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
If the militarily most powerful and least threatened states need nuclear weapons for their security, how can one deny such security to countries that are truly insecure? The present nuclear policy is a recipe for proliferation. It is a policy for disaster.
My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
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