Member-only story
Come On, People, Enough With These Covid Conspiracies
Yes, to be Black is to be gaslit — but now more than ever, we need to do better
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
I think it was the third mass text about the Stafford Act that broke me. You know the text I’m talking about: something about a friend of a friend who works in FEMA who said Donald Trump was preparing the country for a nationwide quarantine in reaction to the coronavirus. Troops would be in place and everything from grocery stores to banks would be closed; in short, the army would have its guns trained on any civilian that dares leave the house for the next two weeks. Each time I got the text, I tried to tell the person that it was a hoax. But they insisted: “[insert friend’s name] said it came from a friend.”
That’s usually the part where my eye twitches and I toss my phone.
The Stafford Act text is just one of the many hoaxes in a hailstorm of misinformation and fake news that’s plaguing the country along with the pandemic itself. One of the virus’ biggest allies, in fact, has been misinformation — but that misinformation seems to be split along racial lines. Trump-supporting White disbelievers are taking their cues from the president…
