Lies can be lethal.

One of the deadliest examples took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.

The false report of a young Black man trying to assault a white woman incited a mob that murdered as many as 300 Black residents, destroyed more than 1,200 homes, businesses and churches and left some 10,000 people homeless.

The youth was later exonerated. There had been no rape, no attack, no crime.

The lie, though, was the cue for the white mob to try to lynch him. Failing that, it obliterated a thriving community.

That’s what lies can do, especially when amplified by people who hate other people for who they are or where they came from.

Once again, the intended victims of another lie are Black. They are Haitian refugees who live and work in Springfield, Ohio, a city of 58,000 with a name that sounds quintessentially Middle American.

The lie – that Haitian refugees were eating the city’s pets – was repeated by Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump in his televised debate with Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

Nobody is stealing and eating the town’s pet dogs and cats. That particular lie, which spread on the internet faster than a COVID virus, has been traced to a woman who said she heard it from a neighbor.

Heard it? Hit send!

Springfield Mayor Rob Rue and others had conclusively debunked it even before Trump repeated it. The Wall Street Journal meticulously traced how city officials told Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance’s staff that it was not true.

In a CNN interview, Vance said he was willing “to create stories so that the American media actually pay attention.”

The objects of that attention are the immigrants whom Trump and Vance accuse of burdening Springfield.

“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said.

Challenged by CNN host Dana Bash, Vance tried to walk it back.

“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” he said.

Nobody has died — yet — on account of that lie. But it inspired bomb threats that closed City Hall, two schools, two colleges and a local motor vehicle office and caused cancellation of an annual arts festival.
People are scared.

The lethal potential of this lie is so serious that the FBI is involved. Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, denounced the rumors as “a piece of garbage,” defended the Haitians as hard workers, and said he would send law enforcement assistance.

There’s nothing amusing about persisting in a lie that has paralyzed an entire American community and, worse, has the potential to get people killed.

South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service

Editorial cartoon by Steve Kelley (Creators Syndicate)