Well Thumbed

Do youths have any idea how terrifying they look when they gather in groups on street corners? I walk from work to the station through a very unsavoury neighborhood, thanks to Serco’s building management fuc^w capabilities, and on the way I typically enounter the same two groups.

(whoops, I’ve just walked straight into a baby’s pram. Walking and blogging ftl)

Walking past these groups, I always see them watching my approach and there’s generally a comment or two as I pass. Sometimes, it’s something as benign as a simple “hello” but it nevertheless makes me feel terribly uneasy.

Why? On the surface they’re just being polite, sort of. Having been brought up in South Africa, I have an understandably inherent fear of strangers in groups and London’s knife crime statistics do very little to ease that. Walking through a dangerous neighborhood and feeling threatened by large groups of men is perfectly natural, right? Having said that, these groups have never appeared openly threatening to me, so why do I fear for my life each time I pass them?

I suppose that a touch of uneasiness is just the catalyst my brain needs to combine sensationalist news features with a stereotype to create a healthy dose of good old blind fear.