The Jussie Smollett Business
Jussie Smollett, known for his role as Jamal Lyon on the television series Empire, performs at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Dec. 15, 2015.
The Jussie Smollett business is sad and disturbing. It reflects the weaponization of victimhood in our culture. A good impulse—i.e., feeling for people who have suffered and trying to protect victims of injustice—is exploited and abused. Even conservatives can fall into this.
It is why I warn conservative students on college campuses—who sometimes are indeed victims of prejudice and abuse—not to fall into the trap of building an identity around victimhood. It can be toxic.
About a dozen years ago I had a direct experience of its toxicity. I helped to expose a false claim by a conservative student that he had been physically attacked on account of his conservative beliefs. (He also happened to be a member of an ethnic minority group and a historically persecuted religion.) The student had hospital officials call me from the emergency room where he had been taken after the alleged attack. I rushed over to the hospital. The terrible bruises on his face precluded so much as the thought that he had fabricated the attack. When he was released, he said he did not feel safe returning to his dorm room, so I invited him to stay at my house. Another student volunteered to stay with him to wake him once or twice in the night in case he had suffered a concussion (which the doctors thought possible).
Immediately, outraged conservative students began organizing solidarity events for him, including a planned candlelight vigil. But then facts about the “victim’s” past came to my attention that caused me to question him more closely and begin to doubt his story. I insisted that he share these facts with campus security.
They, too, began to doubt the alleged victim’s veracity. I urged the student’s supporters to hold off on the planned vigil. Finally, he confessed to the hoax. He had actually beaten himself—with a glass bottle. How someone does such a thing, I have no idea. But it’s what he had done. And he did it to gain victim status and to win sympathy for causes he stood for (causes that were ones I believe in, too). He brought himself into disgrace, was expelled by the University, and did no good service to any cause.
Good causes do not need hoaxes and lies. Truth is luminous. Trust it. Let it do its work righting wrongs and illuminating the paths to justice.
Robert George is Chairman at United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, McCormick Professor of Juriprudence at Princeton University, Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and author of Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism.
Trending Now on Affluent Christian Investor
Gramsci’s Plan to Overwhelm Christianity With Socialism Using Culture
Democrats Willing To Kill 90,000 COVID Patients To Discredit Trump
The American Covenant: How American Independence Arose from the Colonial Pulpits
What Number Will Signal When the Dollar is About to Plunge to Zero Value?
Data Confirms Big Tech’s Left-Wing Bias
Is God a Libertarian?
Ancient Israel Was A Nation Without a Congress
Costco Rejects Money For Children’s Miracle Network Because It Came From Gun Seller
Social Justice Warriors Must Address Core Problems
FLAG vs. FAANG In The Recent Market Sell-Off
Innovation Springs From Liberty
Debunking The Myth That Blacks Need To Be Surrounded By Whites To Succeed
The Futility of Managing Your Own Reputation
Elizabeth Warren’s Great Depression Economics, Part 1
What Would Jesus Say About Inequality?
Abortion Lobbyist Admits He Lied About Rarity of Late Term Abortions
The Malicious Symbol Of The Blue Eagle
Why Do-It-Yourself Investors Do So Poorly
Follow Us
The Affluent Mix
Data Confirms Big Tech’s Left-Wing Bias September 17, 2020 | Charles Bowyer
Democrats Willing To Kill 90,000 COVID Patients To Discredit Trump... September 17, 2020 | Roger McKinney
Biggest Economic Drivers Are Most Poised To Come Back... September 17, 2020 | Jerry Bowyer
The Destructive Obsession With Equality September 17, 2020 | Jim Huntzinger
The 2020 Election And Your Portfolio September 17, 2020 | David Bahnsen
Europeans Discover The Myth About ‘Safety Nets’ The Hard Way... September 17, 2020 | John Tamny
Inflation By Fiat September 17, 2020 | Michael Pento
Innovation Springs From Liberty September 17, 2020 | Daniel McLaughlin
Manufacturing A Recovery September 17, 2020 | Jerry Bowyer
5 Things The Millionaire Next To You Is Doing With Their Money That You’re... September 17, 2020 | Eric Schrum
Politicians And Pundits Vs. The People September 11, 2020 | Frank Vernuccio
If You Want To Worry About Something, Worry About This... September 11, 2020 | David Bahnsen
Dismiss The Federal Reserve Alarmism, There’s No Such Thing As ‘Dollar Short... September 11, 2020 | John Tamny
National Reconstruction Begins September 11, 2020 | Jerry Bowyer
Q2 Was Tough On Those Who Panicked At The End Of Q1... September 11, 2020 | Jerry Bowyer
The Founding Fathers Understood September 11, 2020 | Jim Huntzinger
Things Are More Dangerous Than People Think... September 11, 2020 | Daniel McLaughlin
5 Things Christians Can Do To Win With Money... September 11, 2020 | Eric Schrum
Social Justice Warriors Must Address Core Problems... September 4, 2020 | Daniel McLaughlin
Our Dishonest Ruling Class September 4, 2020 | Frank Vernuccio
The Fed In A Post-COVID World September 4, 2020 | David Bahnsen
Dear Conservatives: Excess Taxes ‘Voluntarily’ Paid By Liberals Are A Tax On... September 4, 2020 | John Tamny
Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.