A secret provision in the U.S. Constitution says that black people lose their civil rights in the year 2005. Bush is planning to enforce it once he declares himself dictator.
Except, it may not be 2005. The year tends to change, depending on who's telling the story.
Oh, uh, just so you know my friends? That ain't so.
While I'm on this subject, though, I'll mention that Tommy Hilfiger was never on Oprah Winfrey's show, and was never asked to leave for racial comments. He was never on Larry King Live, either. He is utterly delighted that anyone of any race likes to wear his clothes.
Also, Osama bin Laden never threatened to kill Oliver North, and Al Gore never questioned him about it. There was never such a thing as Fornication Under Consent of the King, either.
Furthermore, neither Lionel Richie, nor Michael Jackson, nor Eddie Murphy, ever told a white lady to "hit the floor."
If you believed any of the above stories, do not feel stupid. I think that everyone (I am no exception) has heard and passed on stories that they thought were true but were not. The phenomenon is known as an "urban legend." Sometimes they abbreviate it as UL. While some urban legends are spooky, some are fun, or just funny. Once you get into the subject, it's endlessly fascinating.
Go on, I dare ya: click here and read a while. Then come back and tell me you have never heard or passed on one of those stories. I'll bet you can't do it.
Me. I never heard one of them before. Oh, not true. The Ollie North story I knew.
The urban legends keep coming. This was probably my favorite usenet group way back in the early days. They just keep coming. Yesterday in chat someone in Las Vegas told me that a magician in Las Vegas accidentally stuck a real sword through his asisstant. A friend of a friend saw it.
An even better reference for Urban Legends is the Urban Legends Reference Pages. They have extensive documentation for everything, and a truly mind-boggling list of subjects.
I heard of the blacks losing their civil rights hoax. It actually came up in a class at Davenport University, where a teacher swore it was true. I laughed, did some research, and got some extra credit for showing her it was a hoax.
I can't say that I've fallen for any one of them. I usually check out an Urban Legends site like the one you listed or the one from about.com .
At least once or twice a month, I'm sending replies to people telling them their e-mail is a hoax and referring them to a UL site. In fact, just today I recieved the one about Congress bill 602P, the e-mail tax.
"I heard of the blacks losing their civil rights hoax. It actually came up in a class at Davenport University, where a teacher swore it was true."
How could anyone believe this? Noone would stand for it. Even those who believe Republican / conservative = racists would still have to believe the ACLU and NAACP are ignoring that to boycott South Carolina for using a confederate flag.
That the fool was a teacher is even worse. Unless, of course, this is also an UL.
I fell for "Hunting for Bambi", only because my favorite newstalk host did an hour on the subject (he was fooled as well), and it seemed plausible and even probably by the end.
Yeah, okay, so I definitely helped the Fornication story gain wide acceptance in my high school.
Damn.
Another good site is Truth or Fiction.
You mean the Nigerian-thing is a scam? Man, I'm down 3 grand..oh well, gotta go stuff more of those envelopes that I'm getting paid $3.00 apiece while my daughter assemble furniture and my wife processes FHA loan refunds.
Tim the gullible
Actually, the teacher in Jerry's story seems to be a pretty good type, as Jerry says he got extra credit for proving the hoax.
I send a nice email back to friends and fmaily passing on hoaxes with a link to the snopes.com page that debunks it. I kindly advise them to always check that site before forwarding the latest virus warning, missing kid, or body parts for money story.
If they continue to send me hoaxes, I reply to them AND everyone else they copied with the same information.
Somehow, the embarrassment gets them to stop - or at least they stop copying me on the emails. ;)