Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

12-4-90 . . . I get a kick out of some of the theories I hear. Today’s newspaper carried a story about blacks who claim that whites are committing genocide against them. They insist that drugs, crime, guns, and even AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, an incurable disease) are being shipped into inner cities in hopes that blacks will use them to kill each other. People believe this! Don’t get me wrong; I think blacks have been and are being systematically mistreated by white people. Whites have walked on them for centuries, and as soon as blacks begin to get up, whites change the rules. No affirmative action! No discrimination on the basis of skin color! Equality before the law! Racism is alive and well in the white community, as it always has been. But the idea that whites are conspiring to get blacks to kill each other is, well, preposterous. It’s reasoning by motive. The argument goes like this: (1) Whites have a motive (racism, hatred, economic competitiveness) to kill blacks and to get blacks to kill each other; (2) blacks are being killed by drugs, crime, guns, and AIDS at a disproportionate rate; therefore, (3) whites are doing the killing. However, since it’s not obvious that whites are doing the killing, it must be covert; there must be a grand conspiracy. The fallacy of this reasoning should be obvious, but unfortunately isn’t to many people.