As I grow older I'm losing some hearing (happens to most I understand). I'm also reverting to childish emotions, so there's the odd moment when I'm sure that the person who just turned away from me and said something I didn't quite catch is deliberately torturing me. I'm still rational enough to suppress the feeling. But the existence of the term sotto voce is enough to say that there are times when people deliberately lower their voices. And that's just enough to keep the paranoia alive, simmering away on the back burner.
This is all by the way of referring to a Washington Post series, running occasionally, on being a black male in America. The most recent article focused on three entrepreneurs who'd founded an IT shop and were scrambling for business contracts. The main "suit" suffered from his suspicions--did he fail to get the contract because of an honest evaluation or because of discrimination? So I can empathize with the feeling.
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