Why Anti-racists believe the Gator Baby Myth, and More about the History of this Racist Folklore

Allison Gaines promotes an old myth in Yes, White People Feeding Black Babies to Alligators Really Happened. I left this comment there:

No, this did not happen. It is a myth. Among the problems with the story:

1. There are no first-hand accounts of this happening.

2. It was never mentioned by black writers of the time who documented lynchings and other horrors done to black people.

3. If you believe it is true, you also have to believe black mothers cared so little about their children that they would let them be used as alligator bait for $2.

4. People did not hunt alligators with live bait. The standard bait was a chicken that had been dead for several days so the smell would attract alligators.

People believe in mythical history because they want to have their prejudices confirmed. Just as the blood libel myth that Jews ate Christian babies won’t die until anti-semitism does, the Gator Baby myth won’t die until people stop blaming white people for things rich people did. (If the gator baby myth was true, black alligator hunters and black slaveholders would have been just as likely as whites to use black babies as alligator bait.)