Most Black Americans Believe Racial Conspiracy Theories About U.S. Institutions
www.pewresearch.org
Majorities of Black adults say the criminal justice, political and economic systems were designed to hold Black people back.

So far as I can tell “racial conspiracy theories” is a term this study made up, In order to be able to address their own premise. It’s it’s hard to look at this and not consider it gaslighting.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
    7·
    5 months ago

    While psychologists say belief in conspiracy theories is often linked to paranoia or other mental health issues, the racial conspiracies that Black people believe are rooted in factual acts of intentional or negligent harm.

    Well-documented examples include the surveillance of political leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., malpractice in medical research in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the massacre of Black people and destruction of their communities in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.

    These historic events (and others described in later chapters of this report) provide the context for some Black Americans’ belief in racial conspiracy theories.

    This paper speaking out both sides of it’s mouth for this one. “Black belief that the justice system is designed to hold them back is rooted in factual events… that cause them to believe some kooky conspiracy theories like the justice system has a racist bias!”

    • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world
      3·
      5 months ago

      i think they’re differentiating between “created for that purpose originally” and “had been known to do/be”.

      but even then, seems like a flawed and pointless distinction. the oldest proto police departments in America definitely included “wrangling slaves” and “making sure those free blacks don’t get too uppity” in their founding ideas.