Talking to Strangers: Afterword Summary & Analysis

1. Gladwell identifies his second book, Blink (2005), as the first time he approached the subject of police interactions with African American people. In Blink, Gladwell explores the police shooting of Amadou Diallo, a young African immigrant whom police shot after mistaking him for a rape suspect. 2. As Gladwell researched Diallo’s case, he realized that his death was about more than bad policing: it was also about a clashing of  disparate, unfamiliar cultures. In Diallo’s native West Africa, it is customary for a person to reach for their ID when an officer approaches them. In the South Bronx, such a gesture signifies to police a person grabbing a gun. In this way, Diallo’s shooting is as much a consequence of the stranger problem as it is indicative of bad policing.

3. Gladwell admits to writing Talking to Strangers out of frustration. Since Diallo’s 2004 shooting, the country has seen numerous other police shootings of innocent Black men. When Gladwell began work on Talking to Strangers, he believed that America “had decided to tolerate a certain amount of police violence.”

4. When a police officer murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, protests broke out around the country. Yet, Gladwell has a hard time feeling optimistic that positive changes will emerge out of the outrage. One slogan born of these protests was “defund the police,” yet officers who kill due to insufficient training need more training and funding, not less. One encouraging trend to emerge from the Floyd killing was a desire to “rethink[] policing.” Gladwell believes that officers need to be better trained to understand and empathize with people and deescalate the very different types of conflict that the country tasks them with deescalating.

Gladwell considers the term “emotional labor,” which he defines as “the work that goes into the public management of emotions.” It’s the work society requires of flight attendants, teachers, and waitresses. Gladwell thinks that we should require this same labor of law enforcement. To be sure, Brian Encinia appeared incapable of containing his fear the day he pulled over Bland. Gladwell argues that policing in this country could be more humane and effective if we understand the difficult tasks required of law enforcement and give them the training they need to undertake those tasks. After all, everyone is bad at talking to strangers—not just police officers.