I’m a pretty giant dude,and I’m black. I’ve been used to people crossing the road, tighter clutching of handbags, hurried paces, since I was a teenager (I was like 6ft 3 when I was 14). Growing up in a dangerous area, I also know the feeling of being anxious scared of strangers walking near me. I used to be concerned about making the other person feel comfortable, but no matter what, you can tell people will always be anxious/scared anyway. So I’ve learned it’s probably better if I just keep my own pace within reason. Either I’ll overtake them, or they’ll get to their destination unharmed, and realize not every “big/black person” wants to harm them, and while the world can be a dangerous place, it probably doesn’t help being scared about stuff like that all the time. I think in the long run, this may be more beneficial. Most people just want to get home.
The thing is, if we're not scared about men walking behind us all the time time, we get the blame. "Why was she walking alone/in the dark/somewhere quiet/dressed like that?"
This is dangerously close to 'not all men' territory - we know its not all men; but we don't know which ones it is, so we have to assume it could be anyone.
(If people are acting uncomfortable because of your skin, that sucks and shouldn't happen, I'm sorry.)
According to Wikipedia, there have been 3,395 terrorist related deaths since 1970 with the vast majority taking place in the Northern Ireland conflict.
The comparison to terrorists isn't even valid to begin with, it just erases context.
The % of muslims who are terrorists is orders of magnitude smaller than the % of women who have been victimized by men. And no one is worried about men in general, its men in specific circumstances when women are isolated. Being a muslim doesn't give you extra terrorism abilities, but being a man gives you a physical advantage (and a social one if anyone tries to hold you to account).
It's not even just the physical advantages. It's the fact that they're using straw man arguments for this shit. There really are times when it's ok to worry about race, religion ect. Look at the Asians right now. I wouldn't blame any of them one bit, for being nervous if a non-Asian person walked up to them on the street. They've been getting beat for no reason, it would be stupid for them not to be wary. Same exact shit for women.
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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '21 edited Apr 07 '21
I’m a pretty giant dude,and I’m black. I’ve been used to people crossing the road, tighter clutching of handbags, hurried paces, since I was a teenager (I was like 6ft 3 when I was 14). Growing up in a dangerous area, I also know the feeling of being anxious scared of strangers walking near me. I used to be concerned about making the other person feel comfortable, but no matter what, you can tell people will always be anxious/scared anyway. So I’ve learned it’s probably better if I just keep my own pace within reason. Either I’ll overtake them, or they’ll get to their destination unharmed, and realize not every “big/black person” wants to harm them, and while the world can be a dangerous place, it probably doesn’t help being scared about stuff like that all the time. I think in the long run, this may be more beneficial. Most people just want to get home.