Former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty on five of the six counts of felony disorderly conduct for concocting an elaborate racist and homophobic assault against himself. Each Class 4 felony count can land Jussie in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Smollett's fan base, needless to say, is flummoxed. So, too, are many Americans, given how difficult it is to get justice for innocent Black men. But Smollett's high-profile deception, a false story that evoked actual past tragedies, shouldn't mean that reported hate crimes are taken less seriously.
Smollett's hoax exploited Black trauma. Smollett testified that his assailants were white because one purportedly shouted "MAGA country," then-President Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again," and both men put a noose around his neck.
First hearing the story, Smollett received a groundswell of support, especially from Black Americans.
The investigation, however, uncovered the falsehood: Smollett knew the two men, who are Nigerian-Americans — the brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo. One of the brothers appeared on the show "Empire" with Smollett. The rope to make the noose was bought at a nearby hardware store. The bruises on Smollet's face and body were self-inflicted. He paid the two men $3,500 to stage the attack "to generate sympathetic media coverage."
Chicago Chief police, Eddie Johnson, asked during his press conference in 2019: "Why would anyone, especially an African American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make a false accusation?"
On "Empire," Smollett played the gay character Jamal Lyon. In real life, Smollett is gay, too. How will his hoax affect public perception of hate crimes, significantly particularly LGBTQ people of color?
"Jussie has essentially set back the progression of both Black folk and the LGBTQ community all while playing right into the hands of MAGA," one online comment stated.
And the commentator was right. Trump called Smollett a "con man." On Fox News Channel's" 'The Ingraham Angle," Trump took offense to Smollett's MAGA lie.
"He said MAGA country tried to hang him, that MAGA country was bad," the then-president said. "And if somebody, if he were a Republican, if he were on the other side, he'd be in jail for 25 years for hate crimes."
Smollett's hoax dredges up the country's horrors of lynching and gay-bashing. Three hate crime incidents came to my mind immediately: Emmett Till, James Byrd, Jr., and Matthew Shepard. Emmett Till was lynched in Money, Mississippi, in 1955, and James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, in 1998. Byrd's killing was called a "lynching-by-dragging." Matthew Shepard was gay-bashed to death in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998. In 2009, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Smollett is still seen as innocent in the eyes of many African Americans after the verdict, despite the many inconsistencies and gaping holes in Smollett's story. But communities of people of color have every reason not to trust the police findings, especially the Chicago PD where Smollett purported hate crime took place. In 2014, Chicago PD covered up shooting Laquan McDonald. McDonald, 17, was fatally shot by a white Chicago police officer 16 times. The cop reported his life was in danger because McDonald was packing a small knife with a blade. However, when the police dash-cam video was released, McDonald was seen walking away when shot. These sort of ongoing abuses by law enforcement in Black and Latinx communities is one reason why Smollett was immediately given the benefit of the doubt.
Regrettably, Smollett's hoax may affect public perception of hate crimes. But it shouldn't. We know the biases Black Americans face every day, seen in the rash of white people calling the cops on Blacks. For example, when "Karens" call cops on Black people for "being Black" while sitting at Starbucks or bird watching in Central Park, each case is handled individually, although the police suspect the true nature of the call.
I hope Smollett will fully grasp the magnitude of both his lie and crime one day. His actions dishonor Black activist Ida B. Wells' Anti-Lynching Campaign in the 1890s, and the National Lynching Memorial remembering the lives of men and women who were victims. In 2021, the Senate still has not passed legislation to make lynching a federal hate crime.
Smollett's actions could make things worse for people of color and LGBTQ people to come forth in the future with their reports of hate crimes, but those who wouldn't trust victims in the future buy too easily into the notion that "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch." Such a belief, in and of itself, is biased.
Smollett may well have suckered us all in the beginning with his hoax. However, not taking each report of a hate crime seriously would be a crime, too.
