Talking to Strangers: – Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell never fails. He always gives you an in depth perspective of the topic and allows you to make an informed decision on your own.

In Talking to Strangers, he focuses on the Sandra Bland case, the notoriously well-known incident of a young Black lady, stopped, arrested and jailed in Texas where 3 days later she was found hanged (suicidally) in her jail cell. There are a few other stories throughout but the glaring mistakes and why they happened is the focus of this book.

His rationalization is that we’re, by nature, seekers of truth and are geared towards giving someone the benefit of the doubt. This is somewhat true but, I believe, there are a minority of folks that are skeptics by nature. Not conspiracy theorists but have just enough doubt that situations need to be proven to them.

He doesn’t touch upon this it’s important that it’s noted that ironically, our judicial system, in America, is designed around this concept that all men are innocent until proven guilty so, how do we balance that method and formulate some sort of stability in that criminals are systematically apprehended and prosecuted?

I believe, each profession and each situation are different. The key is in the subtitle ‘What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know,‘ and how we should all, especially if we’re in an authoritative occupation such as policing, be trained and expected to understand The People that we’re designated to protect.

Again, this book is thought provoking with subjects that we can all relate to. You should walk away with a desire to at least test the theories the next time you encounter a stranger and hopefully if it’s in an awkward or negative situation, you can be skillful enough to empathize and make better the encounter.