The first time I saw the newly released Superman movie, I shed tears. I was in awe of this movie: the visuals, the story, the casting, the comic accuracy, and the fact that the movie even had Superman in his classic red trunks! The DC fan in me felt relieved as I thought, “THIS is a true comic book movie, this is Superman.” Although Superman has been well-received, the movie has sparked some division among critics and fans due to its pointed parallels to today’s issues. For example, the movie’s Boravian-Jarhanpurian war mirrors the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Even more prominently, the movie makes clear that Superman is an undocumented immigrant–literally an alien from the planet Krypton. Similar to Superman, many of our immigrant neighbors in the United States today are under attack by those who think they have no place in our society because they were not born here. These hateful beliefs are represented in the film through the character of Lex Luthor, a tech billionaire who seeks to destroy Superman in order to gain more wealth and exert greater control over the planet. To me, Lex Luthor’s lack of empathy towards Superman strongly parallels our current society, where we see a lack of empathy from the most powerful people in our government towards immigrants. As a society, we need to follow the new Superman’s example and recommit to empathy, and we need to demand that our leaders do as well.
The character of Superman was actually the creation of two immigrants during the Great Depression. His creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, described him in the very first comic, as “Superman! Champion of the oppressed. The physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existence to helping those in need” (Siegel). Superman was designed as a beacon of empathy, helping not only the oppressed but all those in need. But what is empathy? According to Merriam-Webster, empathy is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” Or as some would say, “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.” Superman films over the years have given examples of empathy in action and also what lack of empathy looks like. For instance, Zach Snyder’s 2013 version of Superman featured a darker, grittier, more “masculine” take on the character. Instead of using his power to save civilians from a burning building, he leaves them to fend for themselves. In contrast, James Gunn’s 2025 take on Superman is hopeful and bright: a hero who tries to save a giant kaiju during and after a battle, and who even saves squirrels along with humans.
In fact, a good minority of extreme Zach Snyder fans went as far as trashing and boycotting the new movie for having an optimistic lens and not meeting their criteria of a dark Superman. These fans show a lack of empathy towards a more empathic Superman and disregard the hard work put into Superman 2025. Not only does their criticism show how much hate these “die-hard fans” have towards a newer, more comic-accurate Superman–who believes that “Kindness is the real punk rock” (Gunn)–but it also demonstrates how our culture is divided. We are lacking kindness towards one another and are losing the ability to empathize with others and try to understand their perspectives. This shift might just have to do with our current society, and more notably, our current President, who is pushing a hateful, dictatorial regime in America, dividing us and considering only his own feelings.
Like those unempathetic Superman fans, Lex Luthor also harbors hate towards the new Superman. He goes as far as to say, “He is not a man. He is an it” (Gunn), which sounds like something President Trump would say about immigrants. Our president does not see immigrants as fathers of families, mothers who go home to raise children, or kids who are scared to lose their parents. He sees them as “its” who he can blame, threaten, and put into detention centers. These detention centers have hurt our economy, even as the administration claims its abusive treatment of immigrants is justified because it will help the economy. Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee has stated, “The Trump Administration has acted illegally and unconstitutionally in ways that weaken our democratic institutions, slow down our economy, roll back protections for public health and the environment, and put health care and Social Security benefits at risk for millions of Americans. And that’s just the start” (Cohen). Each of the actions named by Congressman Cohen emphasizes the lack of empathy the administration has for everyone in the U.S. who is struggling in some way.
One of the most jarring targets of the Trump Administration has been children. Despite claiming to be “saving the children,” the Trump administration recently cut funding not just for education but also for PBS–where characters like Elmo, Arthur, and Word Girl have helped show children how to be kind to one another, learn their ABC’s and express creativity. PBS programming plays a crucial role in educating the nation’s youth about the importance of caring for others. It might seem minor compared to attacks on important public assistance programs like SNAP and Medicaid, but without an understanding of empathy, we face a future that does not prioritize helping others in times of need.
In the midst of this attack on empathy, it is more important than ever that we educate ourselves on empathy by actively practicing it and making it a skill we use every day. Reading, in particular reading memoirs, is a great way to experience the world through someone else’s eyes and so be able to empathize with their experience. This summer, I read two books that demonstrated two different views on empathy: Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning and Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. Cathy Park Hong is an Asian American poet who grew up in a Korean family in Los Angeles. In Minor Feelings, published in 2020, she provides a perspective on her life experiences in a not-so-typical autobiography format. Hunger of Memory, written by Richard Rodriguez in the 1980s, follows a more typical autobiography structure. Rodriguez covers different parts of his life to explain his feelings on higher education and being raised in a Mexican American family.
One way I found myself being drawn to Cathy Park Hong was her ability to share stories to which we can all relate. I consider Hong empathetic for telling stories about the different artists and people she has encountered through her life who have helped her define the concept of “minor feelings.” As she explains, minor feelings are the range of negative emotions that result from being targeted by an endless wave of small racialized offenses (Hong 55). These feelings are often doubted or brushed off entirely by white Americans. Myself and many other minorities share this experience in our everyday lives. When Hong talks about others and their experiences, she makes sure not to “speak about” them but rather to “speak nearby” (102), a concept she credits to the filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha. As Minh-ha explains, “speaking nearby” allows the other person sharing their story to “come in and fill that space as they wish” without overstepping or speaking for them about their own experiences (103). This concept helped me understand a key point about empathy: it does not require appropriating someone else’s experience but rather speaking nearby their experience.
To me, Hong is like Superman. Her superpower is empathy, which is a superpower we can all have. She sheds light on important issues of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and her history, along with her family’s, all tied together in an amazing emotional narrative. Even if not the same age, gender, ethnicity, or culture as Cathy Park Hong, I made it a point to share this book with others in my community who need to be seen and heard. That to me is empathy. I myself have felt targeted by Trump’s attacks on immigrants, to see families split up and wonder if mine is next. It’s hard to see a good portion of our country desensitized and supporting a President who has robbed so much from so many communities. As a Mexican American, who has an immigrant father, I have felt alienated along with others in my community under these policies.
Part of the reason I read Richard Rodriguez’s book was to see if, in the 1980s, he also felt a sense of alienation, coming from an immigrant family. I was surprised by Rodriguez’s lack of empathy towards other university students who came from similar Mexican American backgrounds. For example, when he sees a group of students wearing serapes on campus he states “I needed to laugh at the clownish display. I needed to tell myself that the new minority students were foolish to think themselves unchanged by their schooling” (Rodriguez 171). This statement highlights his belief that you cannot be educated and stay connected with your roots. My own experience and the fact I was raised to have empathy prove that you can do both. I do disagree with Rodriguez, but I can empathize with the fact he was pushed away from his culture as a child by the adults in his life. Additionally, I empathize with some of the discrimination he faced from his own family regarding his darker complexion. Empathy does not mean we have to agree with Rodriguez’s or anyone else’s point of view; it just means we have to try to understand how they arrived at their beliefs.
Superman’s powers are more than just super strength or heat vision–his real superpower is his capacity to empathize with others and help those in need. Empathy is a superpower we can all have, as long as we choose to practice it, like Cathy Park Hong demonstrates throughout Minor Feelings. I believe the lack of empathy in today’s world is one of the most critical issues we face. Thankfully, there are ways to build empathy, like reading about the experiences of those who are different from us. Even if we disagree with them, like I did with Richard Rodriguez, it is still valuable to put yourself in other people’s shoes. Our current leaders believe that attacking immigrants is a display of power, but they would do well to understand that empathy is the real power–a superpower.
Works Cited
Cohen, Steve. “Tracking the Trump Administration’s Harmful Executive Actions.” Congressman Steve Cohen, 24 July 2025, cohen.house.gov/TrumpAdminTracker.
Gunn, James, Director. Superman.Warner Bros. Pictures, 2025.
Hong, Cathy Park. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. One Word, 2024.
Merriam Webster. “Empathy.” Merriam-Webster.com, 2025, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy.
Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. Bantam Books, 1981.
Siegel, Jerry. “Action Comics #1.” DC Universe Infinite, 1 June 1938, www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/comics/book/action-comics-1938-1/f5f6ab2b-0746-4a95-bf79-039a529bbb50.