Jussie Smollett opens up in a rare interview

For the first time in almost two years, Empire star Jussie Smollett has given an interview and updated his fans on the status of his ongoing legal battle. In January 2019, Smollett told Chicago police that he was attacked outside his apartment by two masked men who called the actor racial and homophobic slurs before putting a noose around his neck. The following month, Smollett was charged by a grand jury for filing a false police report. On September 9, one day before Smollett and his legal team are due back in court, the actor spoke to journalist Marc Lamont Hill about the ongoing case against him.“It’s been beyond frustrating because to be somebody that’s so outspoken, to be somebody that speaks up for so much, it’s been difficult to be quiet. To not be able to say all of the things that you want to say, to not be able to yell from the rooftop because, I don’t think people realize that I’ve just been wrapped up in some form of a case for the last, approaching, in just a couple of months approaching two years,” Smollett told Hill. “I’m certainly not going rogue. I’m still taking the advice of my attorneys and everything like that. But I just don’t see honestly what staying quiet has really done. Where it has gotten me?”In March 2019, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx dropped all charges against Smollett. In April 2019, the Circuit Court of Cook Country made a largely unprecedented move to sue Smollett for the $130,000 spent in overtime to pay the detectives assigned to his case. Smollett countersued the following November, alleging ‘mass public ridicule and harm.’ The actor was indicted a second time in February 2020. On September 10, Smollett and his attorneys will be back in court to have the charges against Smollett dismissed.Smollett said that before the attack and ensuing court cases, he felt like he was aware of the social injustices being enacted against Black people, but after spending a short amount of time behind bars, Smollett said he now realizes that issues are much deeper and widespread than he ever imagined. “What I’ve seen in these past two years has humbled me in a way that nobody can understand,” Smollett told Hill.As for whether he thinks his team will be successful in their efforts to have the charges dropped, Smollett said that he isn’t hopeful. “They won’t let this go. It doesn’t matter. There is an example being made and the sad part is there’s an example being made of someone that did not do what they’re being accused of,” said Smollett.Addressing those who think Smollett staged his attack, the actor said that he can see how the pieces of the case the Chicago police and media have downplayed would cause people to doubt him. “On one hand, when I step back, I can see the way that they played the narrative, the way that they served it to people. That it was intentionally created to make people doubt from the very, very beginning. But at the same time, I’m not really living for the people that don’t believe, because of the fact that I don’t know what to say. I can’t take that on,” said Smollett. “I am a Black man. I am a same gender loving, prideful to a fault, man who leads with his blackness. The last thing I want to do is be portrayed as a victim.”

 

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Marc Lamont Hill sits down with Jussie Smollett to discuss his case, police corruption, BLM, and more. First, activists Aislinn Pulley and Angela Davis offer critical insights on the history of policing, abolition, and the broader implications of the Smollett case.

A post shared by Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) on Sep 9, 2020 at 7:18pm PDT

Before Hill interviewed Smollett, the BET anchor spoke to Aislinn Pulley, an activist who co-heads the Chicago chapter of BLM, and civil rights activist Angela Davis. Along with several other celebrities and activists, including Danny Glover, LisaGay Hamilton, Angela Robinson and many more, Davis signed her name to an open letter shared on September 8 written in support of Smollett.“At a time when the people of Chicago are demanding community control of the police and when our movement for Black Lives demands that police be defunded and demilitarized, Chicago police and prosecutors continue to expend precious public resources to cover up a hate crime and renew their fabricated case against Jussie Smollett,” read the letter. Citing the Chicago police department’s long history of covering up racially motivated crimes, including the assassination of Fred Hampton and the murder of Laquan McDonald, the letter listed Smollett’s many contributions to important causes and refuted the claim that the actor staged the attack to get a bigger payday on Empire, instead listing the projects Smollett had lined up.“We believe this case is being used to distract us from the countless acts of racial injustice perpetrated by police against Black people and LBGTQ people and particularly in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and many others,” continued the letter. “We’ve seen this before. We stand with Jussie and all persons targeted by hate crimes, police misconduct, and the Trump administration.”[video_embed id='2031256']BEFORE YOU GO: Post-secondary faculty members strike for racial justice[/video_embed]