Gladwell believes that Montezuma and Cortés’s misunderstanding happens to varying degrees of intensity in every stranger interaction. The “stranger problem,” the way interacting with strangers forces us to confront unfamiliar cultures, perspectives, and behaviors, unites all stranger encounters across geography and time. As such, Gladwell sees Sandra Bland’s tragic death as yet another devastating consequence of not understanding or addressing the stranger problem and letting unchecked misunderstanding lead to conflict.