i want to add more to this post but im busy but i capped the tags i added to this reblog. forgot to add that Good Ol Fashioned Racism has also contributed greatly to all of this shit
i distinctly remember a time where i was pretty much encouraged and expected to know which neighbors i would go to in general and not even just in case of emergencies and this all feels like such a lost fucking art and it makes me so sad
we're all so encouraged to be scared of each other and to not form bonds between neighbors. then you get stories like the "chili incident" where people want to assume the worst of something as community oriented as Bringing My Neighbor Food when i can remember when that was just commonplace
now you can't even wear your hoodie on a cold night and walk to your job at night because some bored white woman is going to get you killed because she thinks your tired ass is going to rob her
i remember routinely going from house to house in my neighborhood as a kid to just say hi to people i knew and this is all so lost because everyone has an amazon ring and the algorithm is taking them from Dont Call Boss Baby At 3 AM creepypasta to "this small town murder could and will happen to you" and "this type of car is indicative of a serial killer"
not to mention how all of it it completely services the falsified narrative of white helplessness as well where these bored nextdoor cunts can invent emergencies to hold onto some sense of power while getting to feel like they're Just Maintaining Decorum and refuse to question the structures that Be or why they really think they're suspicious of some black person napping in their car in the parking lot
i hate it all so much
not to mention how all of it it completely services the falsified narrative of white helplessness as well where these bored nextdoor cunts can invent emergencies to hold onto some sense of power while getting to feel like they're Just Maintaining Decorum and refuse to question the structures that Be or why they really think they're suspicious of some black person napping in their car in the parking lot
Every once in a while a twitter thread will make the rounds (sometimes it's a tiktok video that made it to twitter) with some (usually) white lady recounting how they (or their friend's cousin's girlfriend) "almost got trafficked", and share their experience to "keep women safe" and the supposed trafficking scheme is always incredibly convoluted and sensational: men staking out an area and coordinating an attack to snatch the helpless, middle-class white woman from a Whole Foods parking lot or something. They will wait under your car to cut your Achilles' tendon! They will put drugs on your car door handle! They will leave cryptic messages for the next guy to know that you are a helpless, fragile (and never explicitly, but always the subtext: beautiful, feminine, white) woman!
The worst times is when they share video or pictures of the supposed traffickers: plain old profiling. Last time I remember the lady shared pictures of a "shady guy" on the train, "clearly communicating with his accomplices" through "hand signals", but don't worry everyone, she got out safe to tell the story and warn other women in the area.
The pictures of this dangerous monster out to get women were of Just Some Guy On The Train, clearly vibing to some music. Oh, and he was Black. I'm sure you're shocked.
Someone making a thread painting Black man as a sexual predator based on nothing and then sharing it around would be bad enough, but the overwhelming reactions to this were of other women sharing it to "keep women safe" and being so relieved that the OP narrowly escaped a life of sexual slavery.
It's becoming clear to me that the hysteria around trafficking (that is never concerned with what trafficking actually looks like: poor, marginalized women and girls being exploited by their family or partners) is both a product of paranoia and of fantasy: sure it's terrifying that everybody is out to get me, but at least it's proof and reassurance that I, a white woman, am desirable, feminine, must be protected and my virtue guarded from the hordes of dangerous (non-white) men.
