The Importance of SEEing. with Civity Co-Founders Malka Kopell & Palma Strand

Civity co-founders Malka Kopell and Palma Strand discuss the importance of SEEing, and how the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have led to an increase in us SEEing each other and each other's humanity.

Failing to SEE each other can lead to othering, marginalizing, and even violence. We’ve seen examples of that during the pandemic… when some people othered Asian Americans by falsely accusing them of spreading the virus. In some cases, people were physically harmed. But we’ve also seen examples of SEEING – such as appreciating health care workers, grocery store employees, delivery drivers, and other essential workers putting their lives on the line to help us.

Civity is an organization working to engage people across community and societal differences… often differences involving power structures that can leave one group feeling left out or marginalized. Civity is also a concept – a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with those who are different.