Why Black Folks Aren’t Seeing or Thinking About Those ‘Drones’

While many are running around the country panicking about these drone sightings, there’s one group of Americans who choose not to look up at the sky…. and it’s Black people.

And that’s weird, strange even because Black folks love a good conspiracy, but the thing is, our conspiracy theories usually turn out to be true. More than 5,000 drones sightings have been reported in recent weeks, according to USA Today, and most of them seem to be flying over military zones in the New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey area.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just issued a ban on drone-flying in New Jersey until mid-January 2025, according to CBS Mornings, but with all the chatter and concern about drones, Americans haven’t been given any concrete answers about what the hell is really going on.

“There hasn’t been enough transparency,” Sen. Cory Booker told CBS News. “It’s allowing a lot of potential misinformation to spread or fear. We should know what’s going on in our skies.” Even President-elect Donald Trump weighed in on the matters saying during a press conference “the government knows what is happening… and for some reason they don’t want to comment,” according to Trump. “Something strange is going on,” he continued.

But while the U.S. government scrambles to control the narrative and reassure— or not so much— the public, Black people are quietly sitting this debate out. And can you blame us? Black folks have enough to worry about. In fact, we have the next four years to focus on.

The Root previously reported when Trump won against Vice President Kamala Harris, Black folks announced we’d be collectively taking a back seat to the political foolishness, and it turns out, the recent drone sightings were a part of the packaged deal.

More pressing issues like education, civil rights, and racism are at the forefront of most Black Americans’ mind, so we don’t have time to look up! And this is not to say Black people don’t believe in conspiracies, because let’s be real, most conspiracy theories Black people believe have some truth in them.

Many Black folks haven’t even seen any of these drones for themselves. That could be because the drones are mostly seen in rural or coastal areas where you have more white people, with a few exceptions. Black CEO Giselle Phelps took to Instagram Threads to express her skepticism. “Have any Black people reported seeing these drones? I haven’t seen any Black people on the news talking about it,” she wrote. Phelps said even asked her cousin, who lives in the New Jersey area, and apparently, no one they know has seen these drones either.

Black TikTok user @kayladenaee said “I don’t think we [Black people] have anything to worry about. I think we’re alright,” she said, clearly unfazed by the drone hoopla. “They don’t be coming to get us.”

On the flip side, it seems white America sees the drones as a pressing concern. Controversial podcast host, Joe Rogan, even took to TikTok to express his theories about why the government is being shady regarding the suspicious drones. “What the f*** is that?!” Rogan said.

TikTok influencer Bethenny Frankel said “anyone who says they know anything is lying or wrong.” The TikToker continued saying “it barely makes sense to me.”

With no clear answers, many are beginning to come up with some very creative theories about these drones. In fact, people online are speculating these drones are anything from UFOs to Chinese spies. X user @digijordan even suggested these drones could be a move by the U.S. government to “flex” their muscle and power over the public.

All we know is if these drones are aliens coming to send a message, they might want to try a different method to reach Black folks!