Posted on 02/22/2019 8:34:00 AM PST by Red Badger
In May 2018, Jussie Smollett appeared as the narrator and correspondent in an episode of the Epix documentary series “America Divided” that explored the subject of hate crimes, specifically lynching, in the state of Tennessee.
Now that the “Empire” actor has been charged with filing a false police report and Chicago police are convinced he staged his own hate attack because he was “dissatisfied with his salary,” Smollett’s involvement in the show is cast in a different light.
“When the news initially came out, we were horrified by the story and for myself, it’s hard to get away from the coincidence,” the series’ director Lucian Read told Variety. “Of course in this country we believe in innocent until proven guilty, but assuming the allegations are true, I wonder whether coincidence is the right word — to take this truth about hate crimes and turn it into a fiction like that, it’s remarkable.”
“It seems both an incredible coincidence and also proof of the terrible things that happen in this country,” Read added.
Smollett initially described how he was attacked by two men in masks who threw bleach on his clothes and put a rope around his neck. However, prosecutors are now alleging that Smollett paid two brothers, Abel and Ola Osundairo, to help him stage the attack.
Read said that Smollett was “a pleasure to work with,” and that despite the “crazy, strange” recent developments, he and the producers are still “very proud” of the episode and “think the best of Jussie.” He continued, “We really believed it was the strongest episode in the season and explored issues that need to be discussed in this country. … Jussie and all of us were extremely committed to making a great show.”
Epix has since pulled the episode from its network and released the following statement:
“In light of – and with respect to – the sensitivities around recent events, we can confirm that Epix is no longer making available the episode of ‘America Divided’ featuring Jussie Smollett.”
Each episode of the show consists of a celebrity host (everyone from Norman Lear to America Ferrara) exploring important narratives such as inequality, education, healthcare, and criminal justice through expert interviews and the testimonies of locals across America.
In episode four of Season 2, Smollett visits the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., which is “dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching,” according to its website. He talks with its founder, Bryan Stevenson, about the lack of recognition for this terrible part of American history in a moving segment, and later sits down for a tense conversation with the local spokesperson for the family of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general whose statue was removed from a park in Memphis last year.
During an interview with 98-year-old Charlie Morris, whose older brother Jesse Lee Bonds was the victim of a lynching in Arlington, Tenn., in 1939, Smollett discovers that the men who committed the hate crime were briefly charged with murder, but then acquitted.
“I pray that in your lifetime you see justice, but I promise you that in mine, we will,” the actor says to Morris.
Later, Smollett visits a general store in the middle of town, the site where Bonds’ murder allegedly occurred.
“You can almost feel like a … just what (Bonds) must have been feeling,” Smollett says, shivering.
“Who knows how many other bodies were never found. It was inhumane then, and for anybody that does not want to acknowledge what happened, it’s inhumane now,” he says near the end of the episode, kneeling on the river bank where Bond’s body was found.
I still say there is communication between him and Kamala.
Why this got passed, I'll never know. I believe it was submitted aboput 100 times over the years.
Note: The last lynching was in 1981...and the guy was dead before they hung him in a tree....so it wasn't really a lynching.
FYI, my hometown in Upstate NY had a murder case circa 1830...the first capital case in the area. The perp was hung.
She will be the "compassionate" woman....saying that our history had such an effect on Smollett...that he wanted to tell a story.....blah, blah, blah.
And she needs his base....
GET YOUR INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH BARF BAG READY-—YOU’RE GONNA NEED IT
Hoaxer Smollett came out as gay during a televised interview with Ellen DeGeneres in March 2015.
In a 2016 interview with Out magazine, Smollett clarified his sexual orientation by stating “If I had to label myself, I would label myself as a gay man.” However, he stated his belief that openness to love is more important than gender, revealing that “If I fall in love down the road with a woman, I’m going to love that woman.”
As a boy, Smollett had some romantic interest in girls. When Smollett’s gay character Jamal Lyon from Empire engaged in a tryst with a female character, Smollett defended the plot development by stating that he and Empire creator Lee Daniels were trying to create a conversation about sexual fluidity in the gay community.
Daniels has stated that “Jussie and I both share the same feeling that, yes, even though we are gay, we’re sexual human beings. And we do occasionally want to sleep with a woman.” Daniels stated that “We’re showing life on Empire”, in that both he and Smollett were incorporating their own sexual fluidity as gay men into Empire.
Smollett reinvented himself as an especially fierce kind of victim...a cool hero. “I fought the f**k back,” he told Roberts.
The self-important Smollett is somewhat of a wannabe preacher----his Tweets counsel about matters of spirit, skepticism, and persistence.
His mother---(Maxine Waters says is her friend)---associated with the Black Panthers and activist Angela Davis.
A born self-promoter, Smollett has identified proudly with the radical black activist tradition.
Looks to me like Jussie is now officially a piece of shite and has now lost all of the double protected status of an Afro homosexual ....
it’s takes monumental stupidity to parley such advantages into dog poop ...
Does that mean he won’t get a raise?
Not only is this azzhole a flaming gay leftist hater, the hoax was a stunt to get a role in a play and bump his salary on his show.
Time line
May, 2018- Jussie appears in documentary about lynching
June, 2018- Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018 bill introduced by Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Tim Scott, R-S.C.
January 21, 2019 Sen. Kamala Harris announces her 2020 presidential run
January 29, 2019 Jussie Smollett “attack”
February 14, 2019 Lynching bill reintroduced led by Kamala Harris passed
February 19, 2019 Terrence K. Williams tweets about Kamala Harris and Jussie Smollett being related as aunt and nephew
February 20,2019 Terrence K. Williams tweets about his Lyft accident and hospitalization
February 21, 2019 Jussie Smottell arrested
February 21, 2019 Kamal Harris meets with Al Sharpton
I wonder if he mentioned that it was The Democrat Party that created the Ku Klux Klan and lynching.
Blowed up for sure.
Except, watch how it will be spun and massaged.
Jussie just wanted publicity is the first narrative.
Harris is too dumb to lay low with the hate crime lynching talk.
Does it also mean that Hussein Obama might not call Jussie anymore?
I'm pretty sure that Harris won't be calling anymore either.
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