In any case, 2025 is the 12 months Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly modified the way in which we work, interact with one another, and have interaction with the world at large. It has also made undeniable the continuing reality of racism and the boundaries of fact-checking within the age of disinformation.
Thanks to algorithmic systems, narratives that talk to deep-seated fears and anxieties are spreading further and faster than ever before. They circle the globe before fact-checkers may even flag a problematic post.
In the second half of the 12 months one other technological one There were glitches with Sora from OpenAIA Lifelike video generation software. Apparently nothing was immune, not even politics.
Sora hit the political landscape with particular force during this time the longest government shutdown in United States history. The 43-day shutdown generated significant pressure and public controversy, particularly in relation to insecurity and Delays that would impact the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)..
Digital Blackface and the Policing of Black Poverty
At the peak of concerns in regards to the shutdown's impact on SNAP advantages, the serves roughly 42 million Americans, quite a lot of short videos of black women insulting one another Social service staff or venting their frustrations to livestream viewers caught the eye of the web world.
The SNAP suspension was ultimately blocked by the courts. It also quickly became apparent that this was in circulation Clips are AI generated.
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What's most striking about these videos is the deliberate caricature of them “Black Welfare Queen” was staged. In one video, the speaker explains: “I would like SNAP to purchase an iPhone.” In one other: “I only eat steak, I would like my money.” And in a clip with children within the background, the lady insists: “I actually have to do my nails.”
Any expression of illegal use of funds is shorthand for the alleged irresponsibility and moral failings long related to the racist image of the “black welfare queen.” One X user aptly described these videos as “nothing less.” “digital blackface.”
In the words of black feminist authors Moya Bailey and Trudy, these videos are Traffic in “misogyny” – a term developed to capture this “Ways anti-blackness and misogyny vilify black women.” Bailey and Trudy note that portraying black women as undeserving, a drain on the general public purse, and inherently fraudulent will not be the exception.
Even clips are “clearly marked with a Sora watermark.” has garnered almost 500,000 views on TikTok alone,” Journalist Joe Wilkins observed. Wilkins goes on to clarify that even when viewers were told the clips were AI-generated, some insisted, “But that's exactly what's happening.” Some argued that even when the videos were technically “fake,” they still “highlight real SNAP issues.”
These comments highlight the restrictions of fact-checking as an antidote to disinformation, especially relating to loaded tropes. Once a harmful frame is revived and pushed out into the collective ether, Ctrl+Alt+Del becomes ineffective.
What requires attention will not be only how we engage with the brand new terrain of AI-driven disinformation, but in addition that we critically query why certain representations resonate with the masses.
Why do certain images and narratives spread so well?
From a resolved fraud case to a viral spectacle
Another case of digital blackface that caught public attention revolved around this Minnesota Somali “Black Fraud Alert” saga. While still rooted in the identical anti-Blackness that animated the Black Welfare Queen caricatures, this incident also included Islamophobia and rising anti-immigrant sentiments.
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The case goes back to a COVID-era medical malpractice settlement 2022which had already led to arrests and convictions. The scheme was under the direction of Aimee Marie Bocka white woman, and participated in a network of Minnesotanslots of whom happened to be of Somali descent.
In December 2025, US President Donald Trump resurrected the settled case by weaponizing it and tying it to his longstanding contempt for him “Third world countries” and folks from “shithole countries.” This rhetoric also matched his Hostility toward the political opponents of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
What followed was not a serious discussion of fraud or political protections. Instead, the episode reinvigorated debates about white nationalism, racist citizenship, and racial neugenics.
Trump's call to deport Somalis via ICE with the declaration “I don’t want them in our country” made this logic explicit. The most Minnesota Somalis hold U.S. citizenship, representing a citizenship rate of 84 percentdid little to disrupt the favored racist narrative.
Shortly after the president's comments, the AI amplified the content. An AI-generated video spread widely, Animating the “Somali Pirates” theme. It depicted black men, believed to be Somalis, as migrants plotting to steal from taxpayers. In it we hear: “We don't should be pirates anymore. I discovered a greater way. A government-funded daycare center. We should go to Minnesota.”
This reference to child care was reflected in a viral video produced by a right-wing commentator, this time claiming to disclose one other chapter within the “Somali cheating scandal.” The aim is to focus on Somali-run child care centers. The video sparked a nationwide investigation that ultimately found that each one but one in all the centers mentioned were operating normally. without clear evidence of fraud.
The term “Black Welfare Queen” and the term “Somali Pirate” appear to name different crises and issues, but each are based on the identical anti-Black racial grammar. In each case, blackness is portrayed as fraudulent, criminal, and morally deficient, portrayed as each a private failing and a national liability.
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Why these ideas spread, even in the event that they are unsuitable
These cases of digital blackface were successful because misogyny and anti-Blackness remain available discursive resources. AI just hurries up their movement. Audiences' refusal to correct course when fact-checked underscores how intuitive and ready-made racist and xenophobic scripts already are.
Both the misogynistic SNAP videos and the AI-generated “Somali pirate” content lacked nuance and factual accuracy. What is at work as an alternative is a broader political project tied to the eugenicist logic of racial capitalism.
As a black radical scholar Cedric Robinson arguesRacism will not be an afterthought of capitalism, but fundamental to the inequalities it requires. Poverty is misrepresented as evidence of non-public and community failure moderately than the results of massive structural inequality. And when one turns to the racialized poor, especially once they are Black, Muslim, and immigrants, this logic crystallizes into “common sense.”
What is at stake in AI-powered digital blackface will not be just the reinforcement of racism, but in addition the architecture of political life. In this climate, sober evaluation and nuance take a back seat, replaced by the numbing fear that characterizes contemporary public discourse.
