You're certainly not the only one. They know what they're doing when they do this for hoax purposes or to spin a narrative of how events took place. As you mentioned, it gets eaten up and then spreads like wildfire, becoming the cause of the day or week for everyone (until the next thing comes up.) Even if it later comes out that things didn't play out as claimed or were an outright fabrication, all that most people will remember is the original narrative (and the correction will get next to no coverage in most cases.)
It works really well because the overwhelming narrative in the US, and increasingly in other western nations, is to "listen and believe" when a POC (see: black, usually) makes a claim, especially if that claim is that they're being oppressed (especially if it's by a white person.) Blacks in America, who wield a disproportionate amount of cultural influence, are easily the most tribal (as a group) when it comes to racial politics despite the dominant narrative saying otherwise; meanwhile a significant number of white people (especially among the youth) are all too eager to play ball with that out of some combination of unearned guilt, self-loathing and narcissism, and so the grift gets extra validation and traction.
It's pathetic, but it's effective.