If this be method acting, there was madness to the method.Exploiting the most horrific of racial crimes — lynching — as a prop to further a ruse, a godawful self-aggrandizing hoax.Jussie Smollett would be the primary victim-cum-villain, of course, an actor of small screen stature but IMAX-scale invention if, as seems increasingly probable, he just made up that whole racial and homophobia infused attack on a Chicago street last month.But, hoo-boy, take the walk-it-back and run, from so many parties that piled on — politicians, celebrities, activists, pundits and media. Though it should be noted that mainstream media, with old-school reporting values, were the most carefully and cautiously qualified of the bunch over Smollett’s incendiary claims, lobbed right into the wheelhouse of America’s deepest, ugliest cleft. Not just distant history, racism, but appallingly contemporary in the United States of Trump. Cross-pollinated — intersectionality, a buzz term I promise never to use again — with anti-gay slurs.Of course Smollett — Black and gay, just like his character on the hit Fox TV series, Empire — was a profoundly sympathetic victim when he recounted the alleged events of Jan. 29, ’round about 2 a.m. Coldest night of the year and he’d gone out to get Subway takeout when confronted by two masked men. They shouted: “That f----- Empire n-----!” and “This is MAGA country!” — immediately rendering it a political act in a grotesquely polarized nation.They bashed his face, crushed his ribs, pulled a noose around his neck.Read more:Opinion | Vinay Menon: It’s time for Jussie Smollett to come cleanKey moments since Jussie Smollett reported Chicago attackChicago police: Jussie Smollett assault case has ‘shifted’Noose was still there, circling his throat, some 40 minutes later when police arrived at his condo to interview Smollett about the assault.Not even the ...
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