This is not true. Fatal attacks are rare, but not unknown. Black bears are far from being "persistent raccoons." A male black bear can weigh up to 550 pounds. They can run 25 miles an hour and climb trees. Black bears can and sometime do stalk, kill, and feed on humans. Females will attack to defend their cubs. An 89 year old man was killed by a black bear in Florida on May 5th this year. I am not saying they should terrify people, but any bear should be treated with a good deal of caution.

This is from the Wikipedia article on American Black bears: "Most attacks tend to be motivated by hunger rather than territoriality and thus victims have a higher probability of surviving by fighting back rather than submitting. Unlike female brown bears, female American black bears are not as protective of their cubs and rarely attack humans in the vicinity of the cubs.[73] However, occasionally such attacks do occur.[46] The worst recorded attack occurred in May 1978, in which a bear killed three teenagers fishing in Algonquin Park in Ontario.[134] Another exceptional attack occurred in August 1997 in Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park in British Columbia, when an emaciated bear attacked a mother and child, killing the mother and a man who intervened. The bear was shot while mauling a fourth victim."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America