Jussie Smollett, an actor on the hit show “Empire,” made headlines when he claimed that he was attacked in Chicago by “MAGA” wearing, racial slur yelling attackers. According to reports they tied a rope around his neck, beat him, and threw bleach on him.

The internet responded by sending their condolences as well as raising awareness for hate crimes against the black LGBT community.

Then things took an unexpected turn, someone lied. Apparently the whole thing was set up by Smollett because he wasn’t returning to Empire for the next season.

The Chicago Police Department was particularly transparent about the whole ordeal. Releasing information and tweeting publicly. The CPD doesn’t have a necessarily clean track record of being “truthful.” It’s actually one of the most corrupt police departments in the U.S.

Smollett did a public interview to tell his side of the story. Many people believed he was lying about parts of the story.

It turns out that the two “attackers” were actually extras on Empire, meaning Smollett has some sort of knowledge of them.

Apparently he faked the letter that was sent to him, as well as the texts he was sent. This was a huge hit to the LGBT community especially the black people apart of the community. Many people already think poorly of this segment of the community. Now that Smollett “lied,” it’s going to make it even harder for the community to be taken seriously.

Publicity stunts are not uncommon in the entertainment world. It’s how people keep relevance and audience. Take the Kardashians as an example, almost everything that “happens” to them is a publicity stunt. Like they say “the devil works hard but Kris Jenner works harder.”

Without publicity stunts, people would lost interest in entertainers. Publicity stunts aren’t necessarily good things, but for celebrities they keep them in the scene.

To say Smollett is lying is a reach, we don’t know the whole truth. But what is the whole truth? Smollett says one thing, the media says one thing and the CPD says another. Who can you really trust? We can’t know for sure how trustworthy Smollett is. The media twists things all the time and the CPD has tried covering up so many murders of innocent black people, that trusting them isn’t realistic.

More and more information comes out about the case everyday. Ever since it came out that the texts from Smollett and the alleged attackers were about a workout plan, the CPD has been particularly quiet. It makes you think, were any of the things they were claiming ever true in the first place?

We may never know what the whole truth is in this case, there are so many twists and turns in the story, it seems to never end.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons