Agreed.
Part of it is also being abroad. Because you're not in your home country, you're more anxious and things appear more dangerous than they are. It's really stupid, but the only time in my life I was actually scared I might get killed was when I was at a campground in Montana. There was just no one there, apart from people who clearly looked like they had never been outside Montana. I felt like I was intruding and there would be some form of punishment. Nothing happened of course.
There was a post online I saw a couple weeks ago about a white woman who cluelessly got a beach vacation suggestion from a travel agent to check out India.
My Desis will know how this goes, because it's a common story. She got surrounded by locals who stared at her and she freaked the crap out, felt like she was going to be assaulted, and hid in her hotel the whole time. Posted on social media wither her crying and hyperventilating like she was about to be gang raped.
Yes, there are occasional assaults in India. But even this 198cm-tall white dude has been surrounded by a couple hundred short brown men the minute he stepped off the Rajiv Chowk subway station near Connaught Place. Now I'm not a woman, and I could see how it would feel threatening. But regardless of my height and gender, I've been mentally programmed to think that was a very dangerous situation. But I soon realized they were just curious and friendly. People were helpful. It was a weird thing because I had to check all my negative biases about what was going on.
Self-preservation is a good thing. But it's easy to trigger false alarms.