Who Gets to be Angry? On Jussie Smollett, Tamla Horsford, + Shaliyah Toombs

Last updated on: March 11, 2019 at 4:55 pm by Kerry Connelly

Who Gets to be Angry? On Jussie Smollett, Tamla Horsford, + Shaliyah Toombs 2019-03-11T16:55:34-04:00 Kerry Connelly

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

First, let’s start with this: the only people who really get to be pissed at Jussie Smollett are the people who cared when they thought he was telling the truth. The other only people who get to be pissed at Jussie Smollett are the members of the marginalized communities he represents. Period.

If you’re not sure who I’m talking about, Jussie Smollett is an actor who is Black and gay, and recently posted that he’d been hospitalized after being attacked by two men yelling racist and homophobic epitaphs. More recently, it’s come to light that the police believe he orchestrated the whole event, paying the two men to attack him because he was displeased with his salary on the show, Empire.

As soon as news of the attack initially hit social media, the response was quick and passionate. Supporters understandably offered words of encouragement and condemned the attacks. Personally, after hearing that yet another Black member of the LGBTQ community had been attacked, changed my Facebook profile to Jussie’s image temporarily. I did this — and I’m not ashamed or embarrassed for doing it — because I hope for a world in which these kinds of incidents are not so freaking believable.

As soon as the story broke that Jussie had fabricated the entire event, my social media feeds blew up again — but with a different group of people. These people were outraged — OUTRAGED I tell you — over Jussie’s lie.

Now, I’m not saying that what he did isn’t a toilet-worthy pile of crap of epic proportions. What he did was horrible on a number of levels, not the least of which is the fact that he has now offered fodder to all the people who love to write off members of the Black and/or LGBTQ community when they are victims of crimes.

But what I find just as disturbing is how quickly all those people who couldn’t be bothered to type a single sad emoji in support of Jussie when they thought he’d been hurt were suddenly cursing and screaming and calling him all sorts of names, and insisting that he be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Excuse me, but holy misplaced rage, Batman.

Yes, I get what Jussie did was disgusting. But if you couldn’t be bothered to be bothered when you thought he’d been the victim of a hate crime, then you don’t get to be bothered now.

And save the whole, “Oh, but I had a feeling.” You didn’t have a feeling. You just didn’t care.

Just like you don’t really care about Tamla Horsford, the woman who was found dead at an adult slumber party. She died in November, but we’re only just hearing about the case now because, first of all, a dead black woman is not considered an important news story. Not even when that woman was a mom of five who was the only black woman at a party, had multiple bruises all over her body, when 911 wasn’t called until 2 hours after her body was found, in a town that, just about 30 years ago, was all white and desperately wanted to stay that way. Go ahead and Google Forsyth, Ga. (For a more in depth look at Tamla’s story, check out my friend Dr. Sam Kline’s piece here.)

I’m just wondering here if the news had decided Tamla’s case was worthy of the news, would you be enraged about it? I mean, we were certainly enraged when Chris Watts killed his beautiful pregnant wife and two daughters. Elizabeth Smart? Laci Peterson? Natalie Holloway?

I’m not saying these stories aren’t important or that these women don’t matter. I’m saying that we seem to only care about a very certain kind of person when it comes to our rage quotient.

Speaking of rage — here’s one that will get you for sure. A beautiful young mom, eight-months pregnant was strangled to death, her body driven around in the back of a pick up truck for three days before the owner of the pick up truck, who had been there when she died, told police.

Wonder why you never heard about this case? One guess.

Google: Shaliyah Toombs.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 1, 2019

10 Ways White People Can Celebrate Black History Month

Next Post

July 9, 2019 On Memes and Mermaids: How to Tell If You're a Good* White Racist (And What Jesus Might Want You To Do About It)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Guest Bloggers Justice The Feminist Stuff The God Stuff The other stuff. Uncategorized You Need To See This

Select a Month August 2019 July 2019 February 2019 January 2019 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 September 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 August 2014 July 2014 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 October 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was high priest when David ate the consecrated bread?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Eli Caiaphas Aaron Ahimelech