Politics and Current
A Pew study found that many Black Americans are suspicious of the government
If you are black in America, you might have probably heard one of the following sayings: the “justice” system is intent on locking up black people, the government can’t be trusted, and a few doctors would fairly experiment on us than cure us.
AND latest study of the Pew Research Center finds that a majority of black Americans imagine that most American institutions are actively designed to carry them back (73%).
The comprehensive nationwide survey, inspired by real focus groups with black Americans, asked black participants a series of questions on their suspicions, or what the report formally calls “racial conspiracy theories.”
“There are suspicions that Black adults may have, based on specific historical touchstones such as the Tuskegee Study, Malcolm that are rooted in history,” Cox said.
He notes that the most striking finding of the study is that black individuals who experienced discrimination were more more likely to distrust US institutions – 76% said that discrimination made them indignant or anxious (59%). This lived experience has shaped their distrust of various systems, including the media, health care and the economy. About 7 in 10 Black Americans were suspicious of the criminal justice system.
The study also reveals several differences between college-educated Black Americans and people who don’t display a scarcity of trust in American institutions. However, their distrust differed in several areas.
College-educated Black adults were more more likely to imagine distrustful racial narratives related to politics, economics, the criminal justice system and the media. Black adults who attended college were more more likely to imagine in conspiracy theories about removing Black men from families and using abortion and reproductive selection to limit the Black population.
This difference also applied to Black Republicans – as recently embodied by American Byron Donalds of Florida, who noted that “during the Jim Crow era, the Black family was together.” While the study’s findings may not shock Black Americans who grew up hearing many of their childhood stories, the data might be used to tell how institutions reply to calls for motion for reform.
“Returning to our 2022 survey, Black Americans expressed hope to see change following the murder of George Floyd,” Cox noted. “But many, almost the same percentage, said they didn’t notice any of those differences a year later. Many Black Americans, the vast majority, are pessimistic that equality will ever be achieved.”
Dr. Cox notes that data from the June Pew Research survey and former studies she commissioned reveal that many black Americans have a vision of a rustic that treats them fairly – but with some fundamental changes: “That clear vision involves rebuilding institutions to making sure fair treatment and (that) reconstruction is vital because of the belief that fair treatment isn’t accidental. It’s baked.
Editor’s note, June 12, 2024, 9:03 p.m.: Pew Research Center issued the following note to make clear the use of the term “racial conspiracy theory” in its report, stating that the report is under revision:
