R/I ~ AA
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By Angela R. Pashayan | May 13, 2022
In the 19th and 20th century, white racists spread disinformation contending that Blacks were ignorant and had no value to society beyond slavery. Disinformation about Blacks, propagated in newspapers and in other venues, helped justify legal segregation of schools, restaurants, park benches, drinking fountains, swimming pools, hotels, and other public spaces. Even libraries were segregated; advanced reading material was available only to whites. Segregation was but just one of the more tangible pernicious effects of disinformation.
Since then, racists in the United States—from dog whistlers to outright white nationalists—and adversarial countries like Russia have been able to exploit the fissures in US society that racial disinformation helped crack open, creating a vicious spiral, in which racist disinformation helps to beget real-world racism, which then creates ripe targets for more disinformation that exploits racial division. It’s a process that has upended COVID-19 vaccination drives and driven election conspiracy theories. Racial disinformation has helped the United States to become a place where few have trust in government, and many fear that its ability to function as a democratic society is on perilous footing.
Continued
Embrace Common Sense
Article URL : https://thebulletin.org/2022/05/trumps-big-lie-about-black-people-jeopardizes-democracy-for-all/