As Dick [Gregory] was saying, a conspiratorial thing, something that is genocidal that many African-Americans whisper and talk about that, or was it simply an economic situation that they thought this was a quick way to make money to send to the Contras?Jack E. White in Time, September 30, 1996:
[ CIA Director John] Deutch reiterated last week that he has asked the agency's inspector general to review the Mercury's charges. The Justice Department has also launched a probe. But if Deutch thinks anyone in black America is going to take the word of those two organizations, he's mistaken. Black Americans have been the targets of so much hostility that many of them would not put it past their own government to finance the war against communism by addicting thousands of people.
Regina Austin, in her 1995 essay, "Beyond Black Demons & White Devils: Antiblack Conspiracy Theorizing & The Black Public Sphere," reviews empirical evidence suggesting that blacks are more likely to believe race-related conspiracy theories than are whites:
Even though conspiracy theorizing is far from an ideal form of discourse and leaves much to be desired as a manifestation of black critical judgement, it has its usefulness. Because I respected the speakers, I felt compelled to investigate the speech. What I found leads me to believe that antiblack conspiracy theorizing is not all bad. Whether the theories are true or not, I would argue that the theories themselves reveal much about the concerns of contemporary blacks regarding law, medicine, economics, politics, and the media, and warrant serious consideration on that account. The theories represent critiques of major institutions and social systems by a people who are and have been foreclosed from full participation in them. Antiblack conspiracy theorizing generates a counter-response to exclusion and discrimination by mobilizing collective black self-interest in a way that contributes to the growth and the strength of the black public sphere.[Ed.: In an open letter to readers, San Jose Mercury News executive editor Jerry Ceppos later commented that while he stood by the main thrust of the series, "we fell short at every step in our process—in writing, editing and production of our work." He then admitted that the story omitted important available information, created impressions open to misrepresentation, and should have asked the CIA to comment on the allegations. After being forced from his job as reporter, Gary Webb later published a book repeating his allegations.]
