My girlfriend and I were planning on going camping today, but my girlfriend's white suburban middle class parents wouldn't let us, saying it was 'dangerous'. Both her and I agree that white middle class people are way too afraid of everything for some reason, but I don't know why. Any ideas?
They don't have enough wealth and status to feel secure in their position in society but they have enough to be afraid of losing it and are aware that a significant amount of racialised poors are below them in the social pecking order.
Meanwhile the suburban ideology of "my home is my castle" combined with the lack of communal spaces like playgrounds or laundry rooms creates a lot of tiny kingdoms with little socialising and interaction. Humans are social creatures and being this disconnected from the people around you leads to anxiety.
Covid has really blown the lid off for me. A year of social isolation had definitely taken its toll. I can still swing human interaction, but it went from easy and smooth, to anxiety inducing. I can see how living in what amounts to permanent social isolation in a suburb can cause that sort of defensive psychosis.