Sensitivity and Survival

Abstract

Accusations of over-sensitivity are common, particularly when it comes to forms of systemic oppression such as racism and misogyny. I consider three things such over-sensitivity could plausibly be: a disposition to over-identify instances of these phenomena, the over-expansion of the relevant concepts, and a tendency to overreact to putative instances thereof. In each case, I find reasons why such worries are likely to be overblown. In the first, an agent’s supposed over-sensitivity to racism and misogyny is often simply sensitivity to phenomena which are routinely minimized; in other cases, her slight over-sensitivity nevertheless has value in a social environment in which under-sensitivity is a large and predictable problem. In the second case, the supposed over-expansion of the relevant concepts often corrects for their artificial narrowing, and makes us more sensitive to genuine harms and wrongs. In the third case, an agent’s supposed overreactions to racism and misogyny reflects an affective disposition that constitutes a valuable defense against the twin perils of gaslighting and numbness. I conclude by considering the possibility that there is a real strand of over-sensitivity to harms to dominant group members in the current discourse that illicitly serves their interests and functions to silence people facing oppression.