Jeremiah Wright and Black Conspiracy Theories
By • 3/21/08Everyone knows that American culture abounds in conspiracy theories. However, the Jeremiah Wright affair has revealed that such theories are much more common and reputable in the black community than they are among whites. Many white commentators have confessed themselves shocked that a popular minister regularly told his congregation, which included a US senator, that the US government invented the AIDS virus in order to kill off blacks and had foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack. As Democratic consultant Susan Estrich writes:
I know many Obama supporters who were deeply troubled by what they’ve been reading and seeing of the rants of his former pastor. It’s ugly stuff… It’s the kind of stuff that you know is out there, but you’d like to think of as being at the fringe, outside the realm of where decent people travel, confined to the margins of the blogosphere instead of the pulpit of a large and powerful Chicago church.
In fact, conspiracy theories are so rife in the black community that Wright’s beliefs stop just short of mainstream.
According to a 2005 study of black beliefs about AIDS:
- Half of blacks believe the AIDS virus is man-made.
- One quarter think it was fabricated in a government laboratory.
- Twelve percent think it was spread by the CIA.
- Fifteen percent believe AIDS is a form of genocide against blacks.
- Forty-four percent think the government is withholding the cure for AIDS from poor people.
Another 2005 study finds that 33 percent of blacks believe that the government uses them as guinea pigs to test new birth control methods.
Many black celebrities, politicians, and other VIPs have endorsed the AIDS conspiracy theory:
- Steve Cokely, aide to the mayor of Chicago, said in 1989, “Jewish doctors were injecting black babies with AIDS.”
- Bill Cosby said in 1991 that AIDS was “started by human beings to get after certain people they don’t like.”
- Spike Lee claimed in 1992 that the government had created AIDS to wipe out blacks, Hispanics, and gays. He wrote in Rolling Stone magazine, “I’m convinced AIDS is a government-engineered disease. They got one thing wrong, they never realized it couldn’t just be contained to the groups it was intended to wipe out. So, now it’s a national priority. Exactly like drugs became when they escaped the urban centers into white suburbia.”
- Actor Will Smith said in 1999, “Possibly AIDS was created as a result of biological-warfare testing.”
- In 2004, Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai said, “I may not be able to say who developed the (HIV) virus but it was meant to wipe out the black race.”
Other black politicians and celebrities have stated that the CIA encourages the spread of drugs in black communities in order to undermine it. Jesse Jackson, for example, said that the CIA “was involved in subsidizing drugs.” Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters has also endorsed this theory.
One common form of black conspiracy theory posits that the KKK is adulterating products consumed by blacks in order to cause sterility. As Daniel Pipes writes:
In a minor but indicative example, a new and inexpensive drink named Tropical Fantasy appeared throughout the northeastern United States in September 1990 and sold extremely well in low-income neighborhoods during the next half year. The fact that most of its Brooklyn, New York, employees were black made the beverage the more appealing. But anonymous leaflets turned up in black areas in early 1991, warning that the soft drink was manufactured by the Ku Klux Klan and contained “stimulants to sterilize the black man.” Although journalistic and police investigations found this accusation to be completely fraudulent, it struck a chord among consumers, and sales plummeted by 70 percent. Other products, including Kool and Uptown cigarettes, Troop Sport clothing, Church’s Fried Chicken, and Snapple soft drinks, suffered from similar slanders about the KKK and causing impotence, and they too went into a commercial tailspin.
Even educated black professionals believe things that strike whites as amazing. In 1998, a certain Yolanda Simmons of the American Bar Association’s Council on Racial & Ethnic Justice wrote this letter to the magazine Issues in Higher Black Education:
Dear Editor:
As an avid reader of the magazine, I read the article in the October 29, 1998 issue—titled, “The Tuskegee Experiment’s Long Shadow”—and find that I am also a victim of the conspiracy theories concerning African Americans: I had heard the rumor about the fifth digit in a person’s social security number indicating whether you are African American or not and I sort of believed it.
Well I have now been overwhelmed with another “rumor.” I have been told by a group of well-educated acquaintances that the eligibility for African Americans to vote is up for reconsideration. I was told that it was urgent that African Americans vote in this election because Congress, in the next session, will decide if African Americans should retain their right to vote in United States. Is there is any truth to this rumor.
Again, the magazine is a great resource tool. Please keep up the good work.
The magazine set Yolanda’s fears to rest. Hopefully, she communicated the message to her educated friends.
Some pundits have blamed the media for giving too much play to the Jeremiah Wright story. I disagree, however. The story is a powerful lesson in racial reality to which whites ought to devote serious reflection.
I know I’ve missed a lot of conspiracy theories, so I hope readers will leave comments describing others this weekend.
If you want this article to be exposed to a wide audience, take the time to recommend it at digg. Millions of readers traffic the site, and the more recommendations an article gets, the better its chance of being read. If you don't have digg account yet, registration is easy. Just click submit to get started. |
Click here to join the Inverted World mailing list. You'll get an e-mail notice whenever IW publishes new entries.
It is a proven fact that during the 1980s, the CIA participated in operations that flooded black ghettos with crack cocaine.
The following investigative report is irrefutable:
http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/shock/start.htm
By on 3/22/08 at 9:15 am
I’m afraid not, JB. These claims were investigated by a number of publications, none of which found any evidence for them. As Daniel Pipes, a scholar of conspiracy theories, writes:
In addition to reviews by the CIA, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the Los Angeles sheriff that found no evidence to support Webb’s conspiracy theory [that is the “Dark Alliance” theory that JB refers to], several investigative articles found his evidence lacking. The Washington Post determined that “available information does not support the conclusion that the CIA-backed contras - or Nicaraguans in general - played a major role in the emergence of crack as a narcotic in widespread use across the United States.” The Los Angeles Times stated flatly that “The crack epidemic in Los Angeles followed no blueprint or master plan. It was not orchestrated by the Contras or the CIA or any single drug ring.” The New York Times found “scant proof” to support the allegations. These and other debunkings did force the Mercury News to backtrack somewhat; the editor insisted that “Dark Alliance” had only stated that individuals associated with the CIA sold cocaine that ended up on the streets of Los Angeles, not that the CIA approved of the sales. In addition, the CIA insignia disappeared from the World Wide Web site.
And is it really plausible that the US government is trying to kill off blacks, when it is more responsible than anyone else for making blacks a privileged class in this country through affirmative action policies? Why would the government simultaneously undermine the black community by spreading crack and give them preferences in hiring?
By on 3/22/08 at 10:34 am
“And is it really plausible that the US government is trying to kill off blacks, when it is more responsible than anyone else for making blacks a privileged class in this country through affirmative action policies?”
As of 1996 [I have yet to locate more recent data], 62% of black births were paid for by Medicaid. Black believe that the same government that brings the majority of them into the world, making their very lives possible, is somehow scheming against them day and night. Great numbers of blacks, probably the majority, are simply beyond the reach of reason.
By on 3/22/08 at 11:40 am
Any uneducated or semi-rational person might be tempted to believe that a conspiracy theory provides answers to both real and imaginary questions. However, the question arises: why do conspiracy theories seduce, with such extra allure, blacks in general and even educated black people?
I suspect the answer will turn on the desire to find ever increasing examples of oppression. Blacks adversely affected by the impersonal forces of nature or hindered by the consequences of their own folly, are not content with common sense explanations of their situation. They attribute their misfortunes to ulterior forces or the malevolence of whites. The belief in a conspiracy to persecute them in some way, eliminates any direct responsibility for their own conduct.
People who suffer from delusions of being conspired against always end up believing that the conspiracy is more subtle and widespread than they had previously realised.
By on 3/22/08 at 1:02 pm
Alex,
That’s what I’ve always believed. The gap in every indication of standard of living between blacks and whites is so great that blacks, and their white liberal defenders, have only two possible explanations.
1) It’s genetic 2) It’s racism
With the taboo on the first option, the second one becomes the accepted paradigm.
By on 3/24/08 at 9:23 am
“is it really plausible that the US government is trying to kill off blacks, when it is more responsible than anyone else for making blacks a privileged class in this country through affirmative action policies? Why would the government simultaneously undermine the black community by spreading crack and give them preferences in hiring?
By Ian Jobling on 3/22/08 at 9:34 am”
This is amazing… Ian decries the “dumb black folks” conspiracies in one breath and then repeats the “dumb white folks” conspiracy in the next. By WHAT standard can you look at the employment situation in America and claim that blacks have been given preferences in hiring? What’s next? The claim that Mexicans are being brought into this country at SUCH a rate that there won’t be any white CEO’s by 2020? Blacks are overly represented in the ranks of the unemployed… they’d LOVE to get in on this “preferred hiring” that you’re talking about. They’re also overrepresented in the lower rungs of the service economy. Though I’m sure Mr. Jobling, if he tried REALLY HARD could certainly land that counter job at McDonald’s he must sit in his corner office SEETHING that some black person has denied him.
Hopefully.. the “Wright controversy” has no legs because it is already lacking a brain. On one job site in the mid 1990s.. I had a pesky and highly antisocial co-worker who would bring in that giant book about Bill Clinton which contained the Paula Jones, Whitewater, Vince Foster, Mena Airport(in which Bill Clinton AND George H.W. Bush were said to have run a major drug import ring through an Arkansas airport. Joseph Farah, who runs WorldNetDaily.com and the guy who runs Newsmax.com both traded in this story to get where they were along with the “Clinton Death Watch” in which Clinton is held responsible for the “mysterious deaths” of 150 or more people who once crossed his path. Should Farah and Chris Ruddy be denounced and repudiated ON THEIR SITES by major Republican and Conservative figures who want to play in the respectable public arena? I’d love to see it. And until I do… there’s no way in hell Jeremiah Wright should be censured at all. Ultimately.. no matter what attacks come against him.. Barack Obama contains the “stain of blackness” that some whites will never be ok with. But trying to turn him into some big black boogeyman is truly pathetic. But sadly this is always the way it is in America. Ultimately..the black community when it isn’t a laughingstock is the dark menace. The pathetic reality of black economic, political, and social impotence is the big joke in the conservative back room.. but in public the sweat ducts get turned on.. and suddenly the poorest demographic in the U.S. with the highest unemployment and entire generations of youth consigned to second class career status becomes one being “preferred in hiring” and “stealing white men’s jobs” even as one stares at the homeless and dirt poor blacks all around the cities and standing on the rooftops of post Katrina New Orleans… a community which has seated 3 Senators in the past 130 years is now threatening to put a stealth Muslim America hater into the White House and steal the white man’s country from under him… a people who are represented in the single digits in Ivy League Admissions and high level careers .. who ten years ago apparently couldn’t produce one national baseball manager or NFL coach now threaten the very future of whites who are just hanging on by their fingernails. Yeah.. there are some dopey conspiracy theories out there alright.. but Jeremiah’s ain’t one of ‘em!
By on 3/25/08 at 11:26 pm
JeremiahIsRight,
So what do you call blacks being overly represented in professional sports? Unproductive Barry Bonds was paid $18 million his last season with Giants… Oh, but he wasn’t the CEO. I guess that means Bonds was descriminated against… lol
By on 3/26/08 at 6:20 pm
JeremiahIsRight,
It’s called “affirmative action,” and it’s been a major issue in American culture for 40 years. You might want to bone up on it.
By on 3/26/08 at 6:27 pm
“You know how they do us” is the rational of most black people when their natural enemy THE POLICE arrest or intervene with someone of color. Let’s not forget that singer Alicia Keys (is she really black) recently came up with an off-the-wall conspiracy theory of her own - “the US Government created Hip-Hop with hopes that black people will kill each other”. My theory is that if the so-called black leaders (for the most part, THE CLERGY) misinform or manipulate information to a community using their tremendous POWER of trust and reputation obtained through religious standing, it is done so to achieve control and self-serving popularity. What better way to keep a community under YOUR control than to give credibility to conspiracies and uban legends? They are so isolated and semi-educated enough to believe these things are the reasons for their own failings and poor life choices. Fear of consistant victimization, hatred and suspicions of government and whites are easy ways to garner power - the common thread is that these guys are ministers; Jackson, Sharpton, Faricon, and now Wright - are fear and hate mongers who only surface to help blow a sensational issue out of proportion. Obama has found a way to use the black preacher game to his advantage to appeal to the white community, spewing retoric laced speaches lacking real truth and substance with the full blessing of his best buddy Pastor Wright who he tried to buty after the media exposed him. Wright would not stay quiet and came out swinging and exacerbated the controvery, and that was predictable and you know why?
BLACK PEOPLE ARE THEIR OWN WORST ENEMY BECAUSE THEY ARE A SELFISH AND JEALOUS PEOPLE AND DON’T EVER LIKE TO SEE ANYONE OF THEIR OWN GET AHEAD!
By on 4/30/08 at 1:10 am
I am looking for a theory promoted in the Alabama Prison system by a division of the Black Moslem culture that teaches that the first U.S. President was a Black Man. Any information on this subject would be appreciated.
Thank you.
By on 5/5/08 at 9:50 pm
A “Black” Man, A Moor, John Hanson Was the First President of the United States.
http://www.thaddeusmatthews.com/2007/01/first-president-of-united-states-was.html
Wow, that now means Obama could be the eighth unless Bill Clinton counts.
By on 5/6/08 at 5:40 am
New information on prevalence of conspiracy theories among blacks. In her article “Let Us By All Means Have an Honest Conversation About Race,” Linda Chavez quotes the book Black Pride and Black Prejudice (2002) by Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza on black conspiracy theories. Sniderman and Piazza surveyed blacks and found one quarter believed that white scientists invented AIDS for the purpose of genocide. Nearly half of blacks believe the CIA and FBI have flooded black neighborhoods with drugs and guns so that blacks would harm one another.
Jeremiah Wright’s beliefs can thus fairly be called mainstream among blacks.
By on 6/2/08 at 9:42 pm
By William Hope on 4/30/08 at 5:38 pm
I am not denying they (the 5 “Black Presidents”) may have have had smidges of non-White ancestry. I even believe Harding was part Black, and Coolidge was part Indian. However, the evidence for the alleged “confirmed” ancestry is poorly supported. I saw a recorded familytree of Jefferson, and virtually all of his (that I could find) recent ancestors (and ancestors thereof) were from the British Isles. If I am correct, he also wanted to send Blacks back to Africa. I don’t know much about Jackson’s ancestry, but I not taking the account (of an African father) at face value. It’s believed he said he wished to see Whites and Blacks in Heaven, meaning he had to have been White or Black. Logic says he had made the statement to transcend “racism.” A mulatto who knows he/she is one, views himself/herself as such. He would not have felt a need to transcend race, if he was half Black and knew it.
I am also not taking the “Abraham Lincoln” was black without a grain of salt, either. The mainstream sources say his father was Thomas Lincoln. The claim that Thomas was infertile (and even castrated) before Lincoln’s birth, and that his father is a black man, are ‘going out on a limb,’ with no confirming evidence. Lincoln also wanted to repatriate Blacks, by the way.
In Europe the name “Moor” was given to all Black people just as the name Negro was used in America.
Wrong! There were some Jews and Moor-moors (Berbers/ Northern Africans), in the British Isles and Continential Europe. The surname probably also pertained to those who worked with boats, at wharves and marinas. I also have English ancestry with the surname Moore, going as far back as at least a few centuries. And Britain made sure to not import Black slaves and/or immigrants until the 20th century. If Blacks had made a huge presence in England (as they were banned anyways), they would have been chased out of town by the English and even Jewish inhabitants.
By on 6/24/08 at 12:29 am
With the exception of AIDS acquired through a blood transfusion, it is a totally preventable disease. Transmission through blood transfusions is rare and preventable with proper precautions. Thus blacks have it within their grasp (as does the rest of the population) to completely avoid the HIV/AIDS disease. This would render this “CIA plot” completely impotent, if they were to simply exercise self discipline. Now there is a difficult suggestion, is it not? Self discipline! What an awful thing to suggest for any one, and to ask a black man in particular to exercise self discipline. It is so much easier to just blame the CIA!
Exactly the same argument applies regarding drug use. Self discipline makes this scourge a complete non-starter. But self discipline is required, and that is in extremely short supply in many quarters, particularly with black folks (but not exclusively with them).
Personally, I think we are spending far too much of our national research money on AIDS research. We should spend a much larger portion on cancer and heart disease and proportionally much less on AIDS. AIDS is a disease that people volunteer to receive.
By on 3/21/08 at 10:07 pm