I think Whites are more afraid of what happens if they
defend themselves from Blacks.
I agree that whites are cowed by these encounters, but they haven’t reacted passively; they’ve abandoned these areas en masse, and will avoid them at all costs. You are seeing the effects of this reaction in the shuttering of retailers in these areas that are teetering on the brink; the remaining paying customers have stopped showing up, and the looters (that nobody dares confront/challenge) are all that remain.