By Dee Richardson//
This fall semester offers a class to first-year students called FYS 101: Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends and Moral Panics.
The first-year seminar is taught by research librarian Jessica Hammack.
The class includes a lesson that focuses on the urban legend of poisoned Halloween candy. The urban legend this year has mutated into a fear of “rainbow fentanyl” Halloween candy, according to Hammack. This myth is essentially the belief that drug dealers are specifically targeting children by disguising fentanyl as brightly colored candy.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration website, there has been a surge in “rainbow fentanyl” which the Drug Enforcement Administration believes to be a new tactic to attract young people to the drug in 26 states.
However, this fear is not one for most to worry about. Hammack explains that urban legends feed off moral panics and cultural fears. This legend specifically preys on the fear of drug dealers harming children when their parents aren’t there to protect them.
“These fears are not grounded in reality,” Hammack said.
In fact, NPR states that the use of brightly colored drugs has been used for a long time and in most cases is used to distinguish the dealer’s product from another dealer’s product. So, “rainbow fentanyl” isn’t a new concept, but that doesn’t stop the fears and legends from growing.
Hammack says that urban legends and conspiracy theories such as the “rainbow fentanyl” Halloween candy appeal to emotions and thus, maintain popularity every year. This emotional appeal doesn’t allow people to sit and logically think about what they’re being told.
“The way we get information has changed,” Hammack said.
In most cases, legends and theories are being spread on multiple platforms and most notably, social media.
With the addition of social media as a means of mass communication, it becomes easier to circulate and spread these legends and theories with no regard for fact-checking.
Hammack’s FYS class also focuses on how to find reliable information online and where the origins of these fears began.
Hammack said the spread and evolution of conspiracy theories and urban legends is not a new concept. They have been around since the beginning of time and prompt interest because of the mystery around them.
An example of an urban legend at Hood is the mystery of Coblentz-Memorial’s elevator. The elevator would randomly stop on floors with no one inside the elevator, hinting that the elevator is haunted.
The spirit is said to have once been a Hood student who was murdered in Memorial Hall. The student was viciously attacked by their partner inside the elevator. The elevator stopped on the third floor, which the fatally wounded student crawled out of and bleed out to death.
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