Historically, black people in Americas have committed no sins against other people, have committed no genocides, enslaved no one, stolen no land, mass murdered no one, oppressed no one, lynched no one, yet have been labeled violent by the same groups that have done all of the above on a global scale. Why is this? How can we combat this propaganda.
Black people in the Americas have committed no genocides, enslaved no one, stolen no land, orchestrated no lynch mobs, and never colonized anyone. So how did we end up with the global branding of being "violent"?
This isn't just a case of mislabeling — it’s calculated propaganda. While Black communities were being systemically terrorized, the very groups doing the terrorizing spun the narrative in reverse. Meanwhile, if we look at actual history — like the genocide of Native Americans in the U.S., or the colonization and enslavement of millions during the transatlantic slave trade as detailed by Slavery and Remembrance — the violence has always had clear perpetrators. And it wasn’t us.
The truth is, we’ve been on the receiving end of systemic violence for centuries yet still get portrayed as the aggressors. That’s not coincidence — that’s design.
From plantation posters to cable news headlines, the media machine has worked overtime to paint Black people as inherently dangerous. Why? Because if you can convince the world that the oppressed are actually the threat, you can justify anything done to them — from slavery, to segregation, to mass incarceration.
Meanwhile, global powers with violent, genocidal histories — as shown in the Genocide Education Project — have rewritten their own stories as heroic, noble, civilized. It's not that violence doesn’t exist — it's that it’s been sanitized and repackaged when committed by those in power and exaggerated when pinned on those they oppress.
This is why challenging that narrative matters. Because it still impacts how we’re policed, how we’re hired, how we’re funded, how we’re portrayed.
The work starts with truth — but it doesn't end there. We fight back by owning the narratives and owning the platforms. We need more Black entrepreneurs building media companies, more Black founders launching platforms that tell our stories the way they deserve to be told. We need more investment into Black business that isn't just about economics — it’s about shifting culture.
When we create our own tables, we don't have to beg for a seat at theirs. We don’t have to wait for the stereotypes to be undone — we replace them with proof. With excellence. With storytelling rooted in reality, not propaganda.
Because the truth is, we are not violent. We are survivors. Creators. Builders. Innovators. And no lie loud enough will ever change that.
Read: Reparations in America
