Jussie Smollet Shouldn’t Discredit Other Hate Crime Victims

Chicago police has released Jussie Smollett's mugshot and a statement regarding his charge of disorderly conduct – false report of offense. pic.twitter.com/bERdd4flCD

— Tasneem Nashrulla (@TasneemN) February 21, 2019

If we learned anything from this, it’s not to dismiss hate crime cases but to take them more seriously. My deepest concern is that victims of hate crimes will be less believed because of incidents like this, the same way rape and sexual assault victims are often overlooked, ignored, and straight up accused of lying or having ulterior motives. Only 5 percent of rape allegations are found to be false and yet many times victims are not believed especially if they publicly come out with their allegations years after the incident occurred. We saw that with Kavanaugh hearings. Questioning the credibility of victims moving forward will only contribute to more hate crimes happening because fewer victims will feel safe enough to speak out.  Let’s not turn a blind eye to the fact that these awful and violent incidents do happen all the time in this country.