It’s just a saying my friend.
Certainly is a saying.
Just thought you might not know the difference - many do not.
I live in Grizzly country (North of YNP by 70 miles) and do NOT want to face one down, that being said we’ve had black/brown bear here occasionally in the late fall rummaging through our garbage preparing for hibernation.
I’ve played golf in Minnesota and black bear have been on the fairway - these are little guys in Minnesota - and they look like dogs, and not that big of dogs to boot.
Still, the Minnesotans are afraid of ‘em.
Lastly, I’ve had two Alaskan Brown bears take a swipe at me - I (my legs) was just out of their reach - and it was a rather unpleasant experience to live through. They made our local Grizzlies look rather ‘tame.’ This was at 11:30 PM and the sun was shining brightly. A very surreal experience...