Tell Me Sweet Little Lies: Racism as a Form of Persistent Malinformation

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

The text examines racist malinformation as a persistent form of false information created through repeated conditioning by media, textbooks, religion, holidays, and popular culture. It links how stereotypes become normalized to the maintenance of harmful hierarchies, emphasizing that misinformation and disinformation can directly endanger lives, health, and freedom. It argues that critical cultural literacy (CCL) education can help educators resist mis/dis by teaching strategies grounded in cultural competence, historical, political, emotional, media, and racial literacies.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Project Information Literacy

Tell Me Sweet Little Lies: Racism as a Form of Persistent Malinformation

Critical Cultural Literacy

CCL as education to resist mis/dis and racist malinformation

Project Information LiteracyProvocation Series Tell Me Sweet Little Lies: Racism as a Form of Persistent Malinformation Racist/racialized malinformation is the phenomenon of how we are conditioned, socialized, and repeatedly bombarded with racist and negative images and stereotypes. These stereotypes are repeated and normalized until they become malinformation. But how can these deleterious and destructive forces be eliminated? They need to be addressed and battled just as other societal ailments are, and critical cultural literacy can aid in this fight. R A C I S M BY NICOLE A. COOKE AUGUST 11, 2021 Tweet George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, and the heinous act was captured on video and broadcast around the world. The mourning, outrage, and desperation were palpable and almost immediately resulted in protests and cries of“Black Lives Matter!” These peaceful protests were impactful but not without their own controversies and attacks from hate groups and ultra-conservative media sources. Despite the fact that 93% of these Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests were peaceful, they were labeled as violent, destructive, unnecessary, and unproductive. However, in reality, the damage and violence at BLM protests came from the hands of bad actors, many of whom were white and members of radical groups, who traveled hundreds and thousands of miles to these protests with the express intention of maligning Black protestors and their allies. This is racist maliformation. Even with video and accounts to the contrary, the anti-BLM narrative became loud and hostile and took over mainstream media, detracting from the racist murder that spurred it all. Graphic by Jessica E. Boyd Misinformation and disinformation (mis/dis) are age-old problems, so why are they still a plague on society? Derivatives of information disorder, mis/dis and malinformation are forms of false information that mislead, deceive, and facilitate the racist hierarchies that are crippling humanity. And in the case of maliformation, it has not only deliberately created false information, but it can literally cost people their lives, health, and freedom. Racism, and the implicit biases, explicit stereotypes, and microaggressions that feed this beast, is part of Western socialization and conditions that convince society that whiteness, maleness, Christianity, affluence, thinness, able-bodiedness and the like are what is desirable at all costs. Anything and anyone else not within these norms are not valuable and should be eliminated; anything and anyone that exists outside these norms are easily marginalized and dismissed. This is where racism comes into play, especially when it is used to convince the masses of inherently “good” and “right” hierarchies. Part of this malicious and insidious socialization comes through the consistent repetition of malinformation. Malinformation is false information that is shared with a distinct intent to cause harm, and in the case of racism, to maintain the status quo. This persistent malinformation comes through media, textbooks, religion, celebrated holidays, pop culture, and so many other venues. Malinformation comes through subtly and imperceptibly and is so ingrained it has become difficult to recognize and defeat. Can mis/dis and racist malinformation be eliminated? Perhaps not, but they can certainly be managed through even more persistent education, specifically, what I have come to call critical cultural literacy (CCL) education. So what is CCL and how can it address this current social and educational quandary? Critical Cultural Literacy I have done parallel work in social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and also in critical information and media literacies, and mis/dis. As I developed my pedagogy in each track I began to realize their complementariness and their unacknowledged interdependence. As I explored the commonal

FAQs

What is racist malinformation as described in the text?

Racist malinformation is false information shared with the intent to cause harm and maintain the status quo. It arises from conditioning that repeatedly exposes people to racist images and stereotypes until they become normalized.

How does the text connect misinformation and disinformation to racial harm?

It describes mis/dis as parts of an “information disorder” that mislead, deceive, and facilitate racist hierarchies. In the case of maliformation/malinformation, the harm can be severe enough to cost people lives, health, and freedom.

What is critical cultural literacy (CCL) and what does it do?

CCL is an education approach that teaches strategies to resist mis/dis and racist malinformation using cultural competence and multiple literacies, including historical, emotional, political, media/design, and racial literacy. It treats malinformation as an ongoing social ecology rather than a one-time transactional problem.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel