Letters: ‘It Is Difficult to Accept That One of Our Own Would Betray Us’
Readers discuss the Jussie Smollett case—and John McWhorter’s argument that “victimhood chic” is a 21st-century phenomenon.
What the Jussie Smollett Story Reveals
On January 29, the Empire actor Jussie Smollett said that in the middle of the night in Chicago, he had been attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs, covered him in a chemical substance, and tied a rope around his neck. This week, almost a month later, Chicago police charged Smollett with a felony for allegedly filing a false police report.
In the hours before Smollett was charged—after new evidence cast doubt on his original version of the events— for TheAtlantic.com about the possibility that Smollett had staged the attack (Smollett’s lawyers continue to maintain his innocence). McWhorter argued that the incident
