Pin the Tail on the Honky

Over my last 13 years as a college professor, I’ve heard some pretty wild conspiracy theories attempting to blame various social ills on white people. After hearing a particularly strange one about Hurricane Katrina — from a 20-year old white girl, no less — I decided to publish my Top Ten.

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8. “It is a known fact that the Reagan administration invented crack to destroy the black community.” (college professor).

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6. “The Mona Lisa was painted by an African artist and stolen from a museum in Ethiopia. Most of the great works of art are African in origin and stolen by white people. This is done to promote the myth of white cultural superiority.” (graduate student).

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3. “The ABC news doesn’t tell you. The CBS news doesn’t tell you. The NBC news doesn’t tell you. Even CNN doesn’t tell you. Nobody tells the truth that almost all serial killers are white. The news outlets all work together to make folks think that all killers are black.” (college professor and diversity director).

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1. “It is a proven fact that U.S. Coast Guard ships — on orders from President Bush — were seen crashing into the New Orleans levees during Hurricane Katrina. Bush did it to kill black people living in government housing projects.” (college student).

If you haven’t been following the campus cultural wars lately, you might find it hard to believe that some of those quotes were actually uttered. But if you have worked or studied on a campus lately, chances are you’ve heard variations of several of them.

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