• earth, wind & fire
• atlanta, georgia
• adding sugar on already sugary cereal
• diddy’s teeth
• the physical abilities of female strippers
• having meetings about…anything
• titles
• ruby dee
• mac and cheese, and “mac and cheese” timberland boots
• movies where white women get slapped by sistas
• steve nash

these are just a few of the many things universally adored by brothas and sistas across the country. still, this great affection pales in comparison to the infatuation and undying love we have with conspiracy theories and the joyful spread of fisher-price misinformation.

as i stated before, though, this isnt entirely our fault. i mean, when you’re aware of shit like the tuskegee experiment and cointelpro , you can’t help having a healthy dose of american skepticism and a willingness to believe anything bad about “the man” embedded in your dna.

even i got caught up by this yesterday, as i allowed myself to believe a comment based on a four-year old rumor (!) that sophia stewart–the black woman who’s suing the wackowski brothers, joel silver, and warner brothers for copyright infringement over the matrix trilogy–recently won a multi-billion dollar settlement.

i was so ready to believe that this information was true that i allowed it to seep past my bullshit filter and hop over my “hmmm. that’s odd. maybe i should google this” fence, and i was thisclose to forwarding that news to a couple family members until someone else questioned its truth, causing me to investigate.

anyway, this is just one example of the many conspiracy theories, urban legends, and popular misinformations recklessly spread around the black community like a kardashian’s legs. and, as a recognition of black history month, here’s three of my all-time favorite: Continue reading →