Excellent article … well worth discussing. I recently wrote a story on Medium about a racist who I encountered some time ago, and who assumed that because I was an older white male I would share his own racial bias. (“The Bigot at the Bus Stop”).

What struck me as sad about this individual was that he was sitting in a beautiful park-like setting in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a bright sunny day with a gentle breeze wafting across the city … countless people would love to have been where he was.

But rather than noticing and enjoying what nature had to offer, or rather than reflecting on how fortunate he was, he was obsessing about black men having sex with white women. And, as you suggested, he obviously felt that I too must be doing and feeling the same.

I am not qualified to pass judgment on whether that qualifies as a symptomatic of mental illness or not, but I definitely agree that we have allowed views such as his to become normalized in some parts of the country—and that be needs to end.