Washington Post: American Blacks Can't Handle the Truth

In this Washington Post article, the authors claim that american blacks suffer from paranoid conspiracy delusions that spread freely through black communities via black talk radio.

A 1990 survey by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference found that one-third of black American churchgoers believed that AIDS was a form of genocide. One-third also believed that HIV was produced in a germ-warfare lab, and 40 percent of black college students in Washington, D.C., agreed. An even higher percentage of blacks polled said they thought that crack cocaine was custom-made to be planted in African American communities to keep them crime-ridden and poor and that the government deliberately targeted black elected officials to drive them from office.

These beliefs keep some black Americans from having their children vaccinated, from receiving AIDS tests and early medical treatment, and from practicing safe sex or using clean needles, as Patricia A. Turner and Gary Alan Fine note in their book, "Whispers on the Color Line." They also make seeking the truth an uphill battle.
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When conspiracy theory becomes community gospel, it becomes difficult to rise above the myth. While such myth-mongering may be profitable for a ragged band of black talk radio stations, the long term consequences of immersing entire communities in paranoid delusional thinking appear ominous.

The Washington Post is a newspaper for a greater metropolitan area that likely hosts more than one such talk radio station. How many other large US metropolitan areas containing a large per centage of black citizens have an editorial staff brave enough to buck prevailing community delusions? It will be interesting to find out.