The act of selectively mourning the death of someone based on their political or ideological alignment, while ignoring or rationalizing the deaths of those outside one’s tribe. A form of emotional compartmentalization that reveals unconscious bias in expressions of empathy.
When the invited speaker was killed, the campus held vigils and posted tributes. But when a student protester died last year, barely anyone mentioned it. That’s grief gating—mourning filtered through ideological lenses.
by Briton Phillip September 11, 2025
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