Is the intentional spreading of racist propaganda some sort of natural tribalistic instinct?

For years I've noticed something that has a massive influence on society but is rarely ever spoken about, despite being so prevalent that it's commonly done (albeit very subtly) by mainstream media outlets and governments even in less corrupt more developed nations.

What I've noticed is that a lot of humans (seems like it's mostly men) will regularly feel the need to spread propaganda/disinformation designed to make their in-groups look better and/or make their rival out-groups look bad.

This propaganda seems to be most commonly about race/ethnicity. But also frequently about politics and gender.

And even when they know that something is completely false, they will still attempt to make others believe it if it benefits their in-group and/or damages other groups.

Is there a term for this? Is it a scientifically documented phenomenon, a part of social dominance/social identity theory maybe? Sometimes I wonder if it has anything to do with mate guarding or some sort of tribalistic insecurity over race mixing, which would explain why it's mostly male driven, so often racial in nature, and why the people who tend to engage in this behavior also tend to be vehemently against race mixing.

Of course this is all anecdotal and my perception of it is likely influenced by my own cognitive biases and the fact that I have autism. But it's just so incredibly prevalent, like ever since I first noticed & conceptualized it, I see it literally all the time. So I find it hard to believe that I'm just overthinking it.