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The Fake News Pandemic of 1942.

Library of Congress.

Library of Congress.

Politico has an excellent article up about a previous fake news pandemic. It would be good if we could all learn a lesson from the past.

Seventy-five years ago, tens of thousands of white Southerners responded with agitated concern when they learned both by word of mouth and in some regional newspapers that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was traveling widely throughout the former Confederate states, quietly organizing black women into secret “Eleanor Clubs.” The club motto, “A white woman in the kitchen by 1943,” portended a dangerous inversion of the region’s longstanding racial patterns.

It was already widely believed in the South that black men had been brazenly stockpiling ice picks, pistols, rifles and explosives in anticipation of a larger race riot. With millions of white men now serving in the armed forces and stationed away from their families, the story went, white communities were vulnerable to an impending assault. When that day came, black women—many of whom worked in domestic service—intended to force their white employers to cook and clean for them. “Eleanor Clubs are stirring up trouble that never should have arisen,” a white North Carolinian observed with worry. “Clubs are making the Negroes discontented, making them question their status.”

Of course, not a word of this was true. But that didn’t make these race rumors less vivid in the minds of many ordinary white Southerners.

[…]

The parallels between 1942 and today stand out. In both cases, a country undergoing profound demographic and economic change has proven hospitable to many of the same general types of rumors. In 1942, black men allegedly plotted a violent (and sexually violent) coup against white Americans. In more recent times, a Kenyan-born Muslim managed to capture the presidency, and encouraged violent Mexican criminals to vote illegally. Eleanor Roosevelt, a powerful first lady who did in fact champion black civil rights, was allegedly complicit in prompting a race war. Hillary Clinton, a powerful former first lady and would-be president, allegedly trafficked young girls through the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria.

In both eras, for many white Americans—particularly many white men experiencing a decline in economic and political power—these rumors were and are a way to protest a world in which women and people of color demanded greater privilege.

Highly Recommended Reading. Good lessons for us all.

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Comments

  1. says

    Clubs are making the Negroes discontented, making them question their status.

    He said that like it were a bad thing.
    I think there are more parallels: A privileged majority believing that their privileges are threatened: cooking! cleaning! oh the horrors! Back then they were afraid that white women* would have to do it, now they’re afraid that men will have to take fucking care of themselves.
    *at least those white women who counted. I’m pretty sure there were plenty of poor white women who did their own cleaning (but probably dreamed of having a black maid)

  2. says

    Giliell:

    I think there are more parallels: A privileged majority believing that their privileges are threatened: cooking! cleaning! oh the horrors! Back then they were afraid that white women* would have to do it, now they’re afraid that men will have to take fucking care of themselves.

    I agree. There’s also a distinct American horror at the idea of fathers actually being fathers, taking parental leave, taking care of their sprogs, and so on. Of course, this ties back to the republican/conservative fear of anything social, it’s the huge bugbear now: “socialism!” And so much more.

    I’ve been reading a lot of scary stuff lately. One was an interview with Timothy Snyder, and this resonated strongly:

    Where we’re going? The classic thing to watch out for is the shift from one governing strategy to another. In the U.S. system, the typical governing strategy is you more or less have to follow your constituents with legislation because of the election cycle. That’s one pulse of politics. The other pulse of politics is emergency. There’s some kind of terrorist attack and then the leader tries to suspend basic constitutional rights. And then we get on a different rhythm, where the rhythm is not one electoral cycle to the next but one emergency to the next. That’s how regime changes take place. It’s a classic way since the Reichstag fire [when the Nazis burned their nation’s capitol building and blamed communist arsonists].

    So in terms of what might happen next, or what people could look out for, some kind of event that the government claims is a terrorist incident, would be something to be prepared for.

    The same thing goes with Mr. Trump. The things that he might do that some people would like, like building a wall or driving all the immigrants out, those things are going to be difficult or slow. In the case of the wall, I personally don’t believe it will ever happen. It’s going to be very slow. So my suspicion is that it is much easier to have a dramatic negative event, than have a dramatic positive event. That is one of the reasons I am concerned about the Reichstag fire scenario. The other reason is that we are being mentally prepared for it by all the talk about terrorism and by the Muslim ban. Very often when leaders repeat things over and over they are preparing you for when that meme actually emerges in reality.

    I’m damn near positive Trump & Regime will pull a Reichstag fire of some kind, just waiting for it to drop. When they do that, it will secure the regime, and allow fascism to take over completely.

  3. Kengi says

    It would be good if we could all learn a lesson from the past.

    Haaha, haaha, ha ha ow. Sorry. Please continue. I think I have my cynicism chip back under control.

    I’m damn near positive Trump & Regime will pull a Reichstag fire of some kind, just waiting for it to drop. When they do that, it will secure the regime, and allow fascism to take over completely.

    Our only small hope is the incompetence of the regime. (Damn, I really thought I had that chip under control…) Going back to listen to some Sister Sledge now.

  4. quotetheunquote says

    @Kengi 3:

    I agree with you, that is our one sliver of hope. But, because they are so horribly incompetent and disorganized (I can’t imagine President Bannon would have approved of all of Herr Furors’s tweets, for example), I still cling to it.

    They’re evil fascists, all right, but they’re more like evil, fascist Keystone Kops than evil, fascist Stormtroopers. Doesn’t mean they can’t do great harm -- they can, and are, doing so right now -- but I don’t expect the full repeal of the Bill of Rights.

    “the”

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