Iâd die on the hill that âstranger dangerâ is a deeply unhelpful mentality to have. âOoooh everyone is out to get me theyâre all gonna perpetrate harm thatâs actually more likely to come from someone I already know. I better never talk to anyone in my community who I donât already know, just to be safe. Iâm sure there are no other biases interwoven with this mentalityâ like oh my god human traffickers do not just randomly spawn in every parking lot. You donât have to go solo hitchhiking across the country but you also donât have to live in fear that every guy on the street is the knife man whoâs gonna get you. Like have situational awareness, yeah. But most of the time the guy on the street is not knife man heâs actually just a guy on the street and heâs probably pretty chill, and youâre driving yourself crazy by living in a constant state of unnecessary fear.
Like always safety comes first, especially if youâre in a marginalized group more likely to be targeted by random people around you. But thatâs different from stranger danger. I might even say that stranger danger is something that contributes to marginalized groups getting targeted by random people. Which strangers do you find distrust worthy? Why? Does vague distrust justify harmful actions in the name of self defense? Stranger danger draws everyone away from more important issues of safety (underlying bigotries, systemic injustices, abuse in the home, etc) and towards an amorphous boogeyman that has no solution, because itâs not the real cause or culprit.
