Alice Sebold Is The Reason Lots of Black Men Run Away From White Women

And I am one of them.

Dorell Tibbs via Unsplash

Picture this.

I need an ATM (called cash point in the UK) and as I proceed down the high street, I find one.

I am initially, mightily relieved at finding one nearby. But there is a slight problem. There is a white lady using the cash point, waiting to get her money out.

At precisely this point, I join the queue right behind her, while keeping my distance and then I start to notice her shifting uncomfortably, just as her funds are being dispensed.

These subtle shifts are tell tale signs of discomfort. of anxiety. of the likelihood of anything happening.

There’s a Blackman behind her at the cash point. However liberal or left wing this young lady may be, society has conditioned her to fear for her life whenever she is in close contact with someone who looks like me.

It doesn’t matter that the Blackman in question is well dressed, well spoken and an all round good guy, who would never in a million years attack anyone never mind steal from a defenseless lady.

All she sees is a Black man.

And with this image, she internalizes society’s worst pathologies of Black men today of being aggressive, violent, hyper…