Living in Fear

[Rev. Rye]

I've had occasions when I've feared for my life, but never because of my social identity. It was always a matter of circumstance and as such it doesn't follow me around.

Perks of being a straight cis white man who lives in a Dem-dominated area like Chicago: I'm not too much of an outlier in most of the normal "protected class" sort of ways. Except maybe for my autism, but by the time I started being open about my autism, people were at least understanding. The only person who ever made Raymond Babbit jokes in my presence was me. The closest quality that I think could have been a liability is that I have a foot fetish (because for some reason, to many women, the phrase "you have pretty feet" is something akin to "I have a weapon and I want to rape you.") Even coming out as an atheist in a Catholic high school didn't put much of a target on my back.

Then again, being an extreme introvert who probably does more socialisation on this forum in one day than I do with people in the flesh world (outside my dad and my therapist) in an entire year, even those deviations don't often come out.