Last month, actor Jussie Smollett hit headlines and garnered a huge amount of celebrity and public support after claiming he had been the victim of a hate crime. He claimed to have been targeted by two masked white men outside his Chicago, Illinois apartment, who allegedly beat him up, poured bleach-like liquid on him, tied a noose around his neck, all while hurling racial and homophobic slurs at him.
Now Smollett has been arrested for allegedly filing a false police report regarding the ‘incident’.
Police superintendent Eddie Johnson explained their theory during a press conference following Smollett’s arrest, during which he also claimed the singer/actor was responsible for sending a threatening letter to himself at the Fox Studios in Chicago, where he films Empire, shortly before the incident.
Johnson is visibly angry as he brands the alleged hoax “shameful”, and told reporters Smollett planned the whole thing because he was “dissatisfied with his salary” on the hip-hop drama series, and wanted to “further his own public profile”.
Jussie Smollett staged attack to advance career – police https://t.co/uv3hmyCbnZ pic.twitter.com/u6FmnvHhVF
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) February 21, 2019
“This announcement today recognises that Empire actor Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career,” Johnson said. “Why would anyone, especially an African-American, use a noose… to further his public profile?”
The police theory formed after questioning two “potential suspects” who police now believe Smollett paid US$3,500 to take part in staging a hate crime. However prior to his arrest, Smollett and his representatives denied the claims and his attorneys issued a defiant statement and, “vowed to mount an aggressive defence”.
Judge to Jussie Smollett: You are presumed innocent but if these allegations are true they are utterly outrageous.”
Judge said the use of the noose was the most surprising part if true.
@cbschicago pic.twitter.com/1MIScuJHmL
— Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) February 21, 2019
The tragedy of Jussie Smollett’s case is that the narrative of staging a hate crime – whether that is in fact what happened or not – is a narrative that buries the very real suffering people endure at the hands of homophobia and racism.
Hate crimes plague countries like America (and Australia), but the conservative right consistently claim that violent racism and homophobia is not a problem, as if it is a fictional suffering, made up to deceit.
So Smollett’s high profile hate crime being depicted as allegedly fake is fuel to that uninformed and prejudiced ‘your oppression is fake’ argument. It’s like the Gone Girl narrative to Men’s Rights Activists – it can be weaponised to ‘prove’ that the targeted aggression you face being black and queer is a lie.
Cardi B has been among the many people lamenting the damage this allegedly fake hate crime story does to the very real issue of Black oppression, and in an Instagram Live video she said she is “really disappointed” in the Jussie Smollett.
“I feel like he f**ked up Black History Month.” she said.
Although, Cardi B also expressed a reasonable amount of reservation about believing the police theory right away, given the reality of police bias and violence towards black people.
That’s another part of what makes this story so difficult – it is impossible to discuss police accusations of black people without discussing the possibility of police bias. American film director Ava DuVernay pointed out just that issue last week.
Yessir. I hear you. And agree. I wrote thatthere are inconsistencies. He might have lied. He might be not have. I don’t know. But what I do know? I never believe police on general principle just ‘cause they say so. My experience, our history, makes it impossible for me to do so.
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) February 17, 2019
So any angle that you come at Jussie Smollett’s case highlights an issue of oppression. If it was a fake hate crime, it pollutes the waters of the real existence of hate crimes. Then the possibility that this isn’t the whole story reminds us of the potential for police bias.
Any way you look at it the reality of oppression needs to be addressed, regardless of Jussie Smollett.