Posted on 03/14/2022 6:43:12 AM PDT by Red Badger
Actress Taraji P. Henson compared Jussie Smollett’s fake hate crime sentence to the lynching of Emmett Till in a celebrity-endorsed plea for early release.
Henson, who co-starred with Smollett on the Fox show “Empire,” took to Instagram in a display of hashtag activism to make her case. Rather than argue on the merits of innocence or guilt, Henson claims Smollett is facing excessive punishment.
“I am not here to debate you on his innocence,” Henson wrote, “but we can agree that the punishment does not fit the crime.”
0:10 / 50:16 1 seconds... Henson then proceeded to compare the sentence of 150 days in jail to the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955. “Till was brutally beat and ultimately murdered because of a lie,” Henson said, “and none of the people involved with his demise spent one day in jail, even after Carolyn Bryant admitted that her claims were false.”
Henson went on to state that “No one was hurt or killed during Jussies’s ordeal” and that his supposed inability to obtain employment since the 2019 hoax has been punishment enough.
“He can’t get a job,” Henson wrote. “No one in Hollywood will hire him and again as an artist who loves to create, that is prison.”
The levels of irony here are astounding, starting with the race-baiting argument that Smollett, who faked a crime against himself at great expense to the city of Chicago for investigation and legal fees, is somehow akin to the failure of the justice system to convict Till’s murderers before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Henson had come to Smollett’s defense in the days following the hoax in a letter requesting his return to work on the show. Henson wrote then, with co-star Terrence Howard, “It’s clearer every day that the extreme political climate in our country has only made our system of justice and the court of public opinion more unjust.”
The only extreme in the case of Smollett has been the cries of racism from those defending him for faking a hate crime, as Henson continues to do. Till was a legitimate victim. Smollett tried to make himself a victim, arguably for publicity’s sake.
Henson has jumped to claims of racism in the past including a 2015 incident where she accused the Glendale Police Department of profiling her son Marcel Johnson.
Johnson had been pulled over the year prior and Henson said it was entirely because of his race, stating, “My child has been racially profiled,” before accusing the police of “illegally” searching his car. The dashcam video was released proving the officer was entirely civil with Johnson and actually let him off for the moving violation before citing him for marijuana possession without a prescription.
In her public apology, Henson said, “Sometimes as human WE overreact without gathering all of the facts.” She apparently has yet to learn that lesson since she has continued to react to developments in Smollett’s case without consideration of all the details. The same can be said for celebrities like Gabrielle Union and Leslie Jordan who liked Henson’s post.
Smollett has reportedly been moved to the psychiatric ward of the Cook County Jail, presumably because of his outburst upon sentencing where he repeatedly declared, “I am not suicidal.” It is also possible the move was carried out to separate the high profile inmate from the general population.
Can they give her 150 days for dumbassery?
Unfortunately, no......................
Putting a GUILTY Black man in prison after a solid trial with evidence is now racist. This is what they want.
Juicy Small Lay tried to spark a race war. That alone should get him a life sentence.
This was a predicatable trantrum. Let them kick.
Sounds like an accomplice after the fact. 150 days for you too.
Of course! They are now SO used to not even being stopped when looting a store or getting out on their own recognizance with no bail for even violent crimes, HOW? could 150 days in jail for Sweet Jussie be nothing but racist?
Emmett Till would beg to disagree if he were available for comment.
taraji p. henson lives in an alternate universe populated by many of her ilk.
Taraji??? Wouldn’t have known if that why a guy or a girls name. Means nothing.
Their attitude now (which is pervasive) is that 400 years = a totally free pass.
Sick
I am not familiar with this lynching, but I am willing to put every penny I have that the lynching of a human being is a worse penalty than Smollett’s meager 4 month jail sentence. Since he has been known to visit bathhouses from time, how different will a jailhouse encounter be? And who cares?
Actually I agree with her that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
He should’ve gotten at least 1 year.
Well heck yeah it’s racis’. White self centered actor shoots and kills cinematographer and hasn’t seen the inside of the Santa Fe jail yet so yeah, obvious racism at work here. Especially in chicongo.
-PJ
Agreed. This is all on Jessie. Please tell me how this is an Emmet moment. Poor Emmet did nothing wrong other than being black in the southern Jim Crow period. Clearly not our best showing of human rights. Jessie however was given due process, and convicted by his peers as stated in the constitution.
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