Priscilla Welch

Contributing Writer

Jussie Smollett, an actor, said he was attacked by two men who poured bleach on him, tied a rope around his neck and hollered racist and homophobic terms at him on Jan. 29.

On Thursday morning, Feb 21, Jussie Smollett was arrested and here’s why.

I do not know how I feel any more about the situation. I am disgusted and ashamed as a black woman.

Jussie Smollett has shamed Chicago Police and this nation. America is known for its history of treating black people horribly.

“Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career,” Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said.

The event started with a letter that he sent to himself threatening him as a black, gay man.

When this didn’t yield the desired result, he hired two Nigerian brothers, one of which worked on the Empire set, to take things further.

In the investigation, there had been no accurate video footage of the attack on Smollet, but the brothers were seen walking in the same area.

Later, investigators were told by brothers, Ola, and Abel that they were paid $3500 by Smollett to plan the attack.

He used the attack to promote his career.

The actor was not happy with the pay he was getting from his work on Empire.

This is no excuse for what Smollett did.

“Accusations within this phony attack received national attention for weeks,” Johnson said.

Smollett stuck to his story about being attacked even after an exclusive interview with Robin Roberts aired on ABC.

Now that the truth is out, Smollett is facing charges of up to three years in prison for lying about everything.

How could you Jussie, you had your whole career and life ahead of you?

We have seen celebrities go to extreme lengths to become more famous, but this is just sick and disgusting.

The Empire show will definitely lose fans.

Smollett continued to use the term MAGA country, which is known as President Trump’s slogan: “Make America Great Again.”

Despite it all even though I do not like President Trump or agree with him, Jussie had no right to use this for his own personal gain.

It sheds a poor light on all black and gay people, but specifically gay, black men.

Thanks for nothing Jussie.  Because of recent events, Fox is trying to figure out whether to suspend the Empire actor.

It is now known that his character may change due to the astonishing evidence.

New evidence concludes that Smollett will be cut from the last episodes of Empire.

However, he will still be seen on some episodes of the show.   

In conclusion despite it all, Jussie Smollett should answer for his crimes.

All evidence states that he did this to promote his career.

It is shameful and it should be approached as to why.

When people get famous a lot of times, they do not know what to do with their money.

I only hope we do not, as a society, take hate crime, racism and being abused because you are gay as a joke, we need to take it seriously.

For the future’s sake, I hope more crimes like this will be put in the spotlight and still be taken seriously not just for celebrities.

The Jussie Smollett case has been one of the most talked about cases of the year, and the treachery will not be forgotten.

Maybe, we need to take a moment and remember why we fight what we fight for when we are wrong.

We all have to be the better person no matter what and we need to use our power of speech for the right reasons, not the wrong ones.

Email Priscilla at:

pwelch@live.esu.edu