“Slavery Was a Long Slow Process of Dulling”

Recent studies in psychology suggest that Generation Z students exhibit less empathy than prior generations. Fortunately, other studies suggest that reading fiction can reverse the entrenchment of apathy and callousness. With its first-person narration and shifts between the late twentieth century and different parts of the antebellum era in the United States, Octavia Butler’s Kindred is a novel that has tremendous potential for nurturing historical understanding and empathy in young adults learning about the personal, familial, and social experience of slavery. Narrated by a Black woman in 1976, the novel transports readers to the antebellum South and shows her confusion, fear, pride, and anger as she tries to survive the conditions of enslavement. Reading the novel with an emphasis on empathy, Black and non-Black students can develop the vocabulary and critical thinking to discuss the historical conditions, the psychology of racism, and the emotional cost of slavery.