By Coutney Vasquez
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, Jan. 29, Jussie Smollett, one of the stars of the hit Fox television series “Empire,” was viciously attacked in Chicago.
Two men dressed in ski masks allegedly attacked Smollett as he left a restaurant, pouring a chemical substance on him and wrapping a rope around his neck.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Smollett was hospitalized after the attack, and told police that his attackers yelled homophobic and racial slurs at him.
Smollett, a Santa Rosa native, was born to a Russian/Polish Jewish father and an African-American mother.
After having starred in films such as “The Mighty Ducks” and “North,” Smollett made waves when he came out as homosexual during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres in 2015.
“His attackers yelled pro-‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) comments during the attack, such as ‘MAGA country,’” wrote The Hollywood Reporter’s Ryan Parker on Jan. 29.
Days before the alleged attack, Smollett received threatening letters while on the “Empire” set, according to Friday’s CNN article.
Hate crimes such as these must be put to an end. It is unacceptable that crimes like this continue to happen and something needs to be done about it.
In addition, we as a nation must accept the sad reality that hate crimes of this caliber persist, even in the nation’s seemingly most liberal areas.
A similar crime was committed at San Jose State in 2013 when three white students attacked their African American roommate, freshman Donald Williams, Jr.
According to an NBC Bay Area article written in Feb. 2016, the three white students had put a bike lock around Williams’ neck for several minutes, and displayed a confederate flag in their room.
While this was clearly a hate crime against Williams, the students were only charged with misdemeanor battery, and “escaped a conviction on hate crime allegations,” according to NBC Bay Area.
The Williams incident occurred just eight years after African-American SJSU student Gregory Johnson, Jr. was found hung dead in a fraternity with blunt trauma to the head.
However, many believed Johnson’s death was a murder cover-up.
While racism may seem to be an antiquated notion, hate crimes have recently been on the rise.
According to an article written by the NAACP in June 2018, hate crimes increased by 12 percent in 2016.
There have been too many too often, and this must change for America to change for the better.
Just as millions of people around the country have vocalized their support for Smollett in the days since his alleged attack, it’s important that the tragedies surrounding local students such as Williams are met with the same urgency.
Discrimination, hate crimes and mass shootings have no place in today’s society even when we seem more divided than ever.
If we do not put an end to forms of discrimination like these, there will be no hope for our country to improve.
