Navigating the Duality of Cultural Mistrust and Understanding the Declining Significance of Data Within Identity Politics

This study investigates the duality of cultural mistrust during highly propagandized political climates. Historically, “cultural mistrust” has aligned with Blacks' inability to be trusting of “White” systems that have perpetuated acts of racism and discrimination stemming from slavery. To date, there has been very few studies or scholarly discussion investigating the nuance of cultural mistrust, more specifically, how Blacks have the tendency to mistrust other Blacks or be “pathologically alienated”, working against their own better interests. Secondly, the intersectionality of cultural mistrust and “Inverted Cultural Mistrust”, or the copious belief (whether conscious or unconscious) that Whites have been dispositioned and recategorized as a “marginalized group”, making them subject to reverse racism by non-Whites has equally been negated. This study investigates the personal lives of three professionals navigating through cultural mistrust. This study borrows from Du Bois' theory of “Double Consciousness” and Fanon's concept of “pathological alienation” as well as other theorists dealing with intersectionality in order to bring a better understanding of the duality of cultural mistrust during highly propagandized political climates.