Road rage and stereotype bias | |
Lately, more and more frequently, I’m finding myself on the receiving end of some potentially serious road rage.
Now I’m surely not the kind of person who will get into a meaningless fight but I do feel like standing my ground when being wrongfully accused or undeservingly mistreated.
Which means I would normally ask the reason for any uncalled for conduct directed to my person. Unfortunately, reasoning in such situations is apparently a luxury however…
At the moment, I’ve reached the point of just ignoring, to the best of my ability but it’s not that easy every time.
This morning I had a hot headed biker punching on my window for me not sitting right in the middle of my lane but a bit to the left as I was avoiding a texting idiot who swerved into my lane.
I rolled down the window only to be met with a burst of profanities. I calmly pointed out that he should be more situationally aware and I had seen him, actually being rather far behind, and totally unaffected by the unfolding situation. I had even used my indicators; Many would not have been quick or caring enough to do so in a similar cases…
Then I got the eye-opening line: You sob got a Range Rover and you think you can screw us all?
(Your bike costs more than my ancient Rangie, mate and if you could afford it, then perhaps you could also afford a helmet, huh? And not riding like an idiot btw)
And this is not the only case. In my daily commute I’m seeing A LOT of this. And one could fairly suggest I watch out my driving, which I do. In 25 years behind a wheel I’ve never touched another car, let alone being involved into an accident. All I have is a single parking ticket for not being quick enough to reload the meter through their hanging app…
I could go on and on but you get my point. And another thing I’ve noticed, I receive zero assistance or tolerance whenever I find myself in a tight spot or difficult situation where a kind gesture would be in order. I can sure enough expect none of that.
Conversely,I can clearly see the surprise whenever I yield, allow pedestrians to cross (pretty standard elsewhere but not here, unfortunately) or being kind and thoughtful of my fellow citizens in any other way, out on the streets.
It seems that it's more likely the vehicle that attracts all this negativity than my driving.
As I guess there’s a stereotype bias for everything and it’s frustrating at times
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