I doubt anybody said to her anything of the sort. It is well established that nothing petrifies white people more than a potential confrontation with a black woman.

Not that it should matter, the story is great, my star is for the Final Destination reference alone.

Damn. Bless you for your patience.

Why would you even choose to work in a field - much less go through the mandated educational & regulatory rigor- in which core performative requirements of the profession may be absolute moral prohibitions? We’re not talking about a dipshit county clerk or homophobic baker. Lives will be ruined. This will KILL people.

I doubt she meant to do it, but perhaps in the world of Gilead all the WOC said, oh, hell, no - we’re NOT going through this again, and went north.

Financial crimes are the FBI’s stock-and-trade. Watergate? Hold my beer.

I wish I could give more stars for this. Take what I have, please.

Excellent piece. Thank you.

It doesn’t matter what you - or, we - think. What matters is what she, “Grace” thought & felt under the circumstances, and how she still feels. We do not get to define “actual victims”. Pressure is coercion, and coercion is assault. There’s no rape-o-meter by which to gauge the severity of emotional trauma.

I have learned much. Thank you!

Still making movies. Polanski, too. What a world.

Yes, there is that still.

Points cheerfully taken :)

Indeed. Taken a bit further, there is no “can’t” - it’s “won’t”.

Right - hard and fast rules relieve both men and racists of exercising empathy and critical thought. It’s good we’re getting called out on all the bullshit. Some of us are capable of learning and making course-corrections, because we don’t want to be part of the problem anymore.

All the stars. This clicks.

People ARE idiots. Sheesh.

Post script: I’m still learning and growing.

Caused? Hmm. A very good question. Let me be clear: by no means am I offering an excuse, merely an attempted explanation. My parents (mom, step-dad) were a romantic mismatch in terms of their drives, my mother shared too much with me, I learned about sex from porn, and sex felt like a hollow sport, an act of conquest…

I’ve had these kinds of bad dates, but I’m not a celebrity. That said, I never really understood - or, perhaps better stated, accepted - that I’d made a woman uncomfortable or even somewhat afraid with my fumbling insistence to close a deal. Men of my age group often view sex as exactly that - what do I have to do or…