For centuries, Black Americans have fought racism and disenfranchisement and defeated countless so-called truths. In the process, we have developed a powerful sixth sense for distinguishing fact from fiction.
Black people have been forced to see this country as it is and have learned to be collectively vigilant against the relentless attempts to confuse and deceive us through deliberate falsehoods.
The spread of such false information, especiallyTargeting a specific race— With a centuries-long history in the United States, slaveowners regularly spread lies to control perceptions of enslaved Black people and quell slave rebellions. Since at least the mid-20th century, such tactics have often included propaganda campaigns aimed at discrediting Black leaders and undermining the efforts of Black activist organizations.
But it is in modern politics, especially during election years, that the deliberate distortion of the truth is most evident.
Shortly after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday, the Trump campaign began running attack ads against Vice President Kamala Harris, who could become the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to lead a major party’s presidential nomination.
When disinformation efforts are successful, the results arecause disproportionate harmRacial and ethnic minority groups, especially black people. That’s why the tenacity of black Americans against fiction masquerading as truth is so meaningful. The potential damage is so great.
Despite relentless attempts to bombard us with fake news, a 2021 Ipsos poll found that far fewer Black Americans than white people believed false claims of widespread election fraud in 2020. My own analysis of the same polling data found that about 13% of Black respondents said they thought the election fraud claims were true, compared with 35% of white pollsters.
Additionally, the survey found that roughly 60% of white Americans believe there was voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, compared with just 30% of Black Americans.Multi-ethnic post-election surveyConducted by scholars from over 100 universities across the United States
Deliberately spreading falsehoods is part of what the nonpartisan RAND Corporation calls “disinformation peddling.”The collapse of truthIt defines the role of facts and analysis in American public life as diminishing.
We are studying ways to counter this: our research shows that it leads to political paralysis, a decline in civil dialogue, poorer educational outcomes, widening health disparities, and widespread uncertainty.
Just before the 2016 US presidential election, RussiaA campaign of deceptionThey created fake social media accounts and websites to target black Americans and spread false stories to discourage them from voting.Black and Latino VotersFalse information has once again proliferated in the final days of the presidential election campaign.
This year’s paceis expected to continue to accelerateAdvances in artificial intelligence and technology are making it easier to deceive vulnerable voters. For example, earlier this year,Recorded by the BBCDozens of fake AI-generated images were used on social media to suggest that black voters supported former President Donald Trump.
In an ideal world, our nation’s leaders would implement comprehensive federal regulations to combat disinformation and empower communities to fight back at the local level, but we’re far from that today, in part because of how difficult it is to regulate digital fraud.
The rise of artificial intelligence has made it easier to create fake news stories. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has warned that AI “has the potential to accelerate the spread of misinformation.”“Hair on fire” moment.
The U.S. government’s response to the spread of disinformation by foreign powers has often been ad hoc and uncoordinated.According to a RAND study:This approach, or lack thereof, is largely due to the absence of a central government authority and a coherent strategy to address falsehoods.
Related RAND studiesA study last year found that marginalized racial and ethnic groups are more susceptible to truth decay, in large part because these groups have historically been underrepresented in mainstream media and are therefore more likely to get their news from less credible sources.
For now, the responsibility for finding the truth rests primarily on our shoulders as the people. But we can learn valuable lessons from Black Americans’ approach to the collapse of truth.
- Facing realityIf you have any doubts, doubt them. Black Americans are known for having strong self-esteem.Shared our fatethe idea that what happens to people who share an ethnic identity directly affects each individual within that group. For us, skepticism is always there because we oftenbe negatively portrayed in the media, We are less likely than our white colleagues to believe fake news disguised as news.
- Use the tools to find out the truth. National Black Cultural Resources TrustAnd thatBlack Information NetworkWe have created digital tools to distribute accurate voting information and counter outright lies that are popping up. These web-based resources play a vital role by providing a trusted space for Black people and others to connect and share ideas about how to verify the truth.
- Be an active and empowered consumer.If you think something is wrong, check and verify the so-called facts one by one. Access tools that can detect bot accounts on social media (Bottom meter,Bot Sentinel) or tracking the deliberate spread of falsehoods (False rumor,Graphica,Cloud TangleFact-check statements via sites such as:Snopes,Fact CheckorPolitiFact.
- Community is important.Most importantly, don’t isolate yourself. Talk to friends and family about what you’ve seen online or heard in the news. Even better, reach beyond your network of colleagues and challenge your perspective by having conversations with people outside of your comfort zone.
The truth is still out there, you just need to try harder to find it.
Ray Bullock Jr. is RAND’s inaugural Truth Decay Professor, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, and a professor of political science and African-American studies at Pennsylvania State University.
