Living With FOBM

This morning I went out to run a few errands in town. I parked my car and was just about to hop out when I noticed a young black man walking in my direction. Making sure the doors were locked, I stayed in my car until he got into a car and drove away. I did this because I suffer from moderate to severe FOBM (Fear of Black Men), and it's getting worse.

Oddly enough, my condition is much more pronounced here in Maine than years ago when I lived in Washington, DC., a majority black city. But things have gotten much worse in society since then, with black hatred of whites currently off the charts. From what we see on the news, the feeling is mutual.

Most recently, a surveillance video that has gone viral shows a young white woman enter a subway train in Charlotte, NC, take a seat and then moments later get fatally stabbed three times in the neck from behind by a black man with long dreadlocks. This incident serves to reinforce a growing racial divide leading to new cases of FOBM among white women. It's too bad, but a gut reaction is a gut reaction.

Like all of us, I am hoping for a cure. Until then I am staying off public transportation, not going out at night, walking only on busy main roads and having a pair of eyes installed in the back of my head.