Smollett's story may be phony, but it shows the real danger of jumping to conclusions
SAN DIEGO -- Whoever said there is no such thing as bad publicity never met Jussie Smollett.
Ask your HR director. There must be easier ways to get a salary bump.
In a dizzying turn of events, the star went from alleged victim to criminal defendant. The actor has now been arrested in Chicago and charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report.
If convicted, the actor could get one to three years in prison and face a $25,000 fine. And a story that could have helped shine a light on a rash of anti-LGBTQ violence in America will instead give those who are uncomfortable with the topic an excuse to stay in the dark.
I don't see how we avoid it. There are too many stories. For instance, in a case that didn't get a fraction of the attention given to the Smollett story, a gay couple was attacked and seriously injured by four men in Austin, Texas, on Jan. 19 in an apparent hate crime. According to the police report, Spencer Deehring and Tristan Perry were beaten and kicked until unconscious.
If Smollett did indeed stage this attack on himself, then the actor did incalculable harm to victims of genuine hate crimes, and shame on him. But if anyone who doesn't feel comfortable discussing LGBTQ issues is using this case as an easy out, then shame on them.
Let's catch up. Smollett, a gay African-American actor who stars in the Fox drama "Empire," claimed that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago on Jan 29. He said that two men who recognized him from the show cornered him in the middle of the night. He said they yelled slurs, hit him, doused him with bleach, and put a noose around his neck -- all while shouting, "This is MAGA country!"
A couple weeks later, police questioned two brothers from Nigeria, who told them that Smollett had hired them -- at the bargain price of $3,500 -- to stage the attack.
The stunt might have been phony, but the hatred it unleashed was real. A lot of it came from anti-Trump'ers -- some of whom are running for president. In fact, @CoryBooker and @KamalaHarris both tweeted that this was an "attempted modern-day lynching."
Meanwhile, as this drama was unfolding, the audience got into the act -- and tripped over its own feet. Many of those who tried to follow each bounce of this story immediately jumped to conclusions based on nothing more than their biases.
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