Pity presupposes inequality while empathy requires equal standing

Evidence

Pity is powerful, and also dangerous, because it implies that the person who has the emotion is more powerful than the person who is the object of the emotion. Empathy is not a relevant emotion here because it is built on a greater sense of equality between the two parties; the oppressed Muslim woman is figured as coming from a culture so different that it is difficult to understand or relate to. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 518

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharp distinction between pity and empathy as structurally different emotions rather than synonyms.
• XREF: This recalls nothing I’ve flagged before — suggests adding Richard Sennett on respect, or Mamdani’s critique of cultural framing. — connects to: Pity persists as irrational mediation of reason, becoming vice; Moral impulse expressed as duty gave way to pity under modern subjection — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 216; A privileged man’s pity toward disadvantaged women makes him prey to their demands. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1933 (+3 more)