If you think “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was let off the hook for faking a hate crime that sucked up some $130,000 in taxpayer funding and police resources, you’re probably a racist.
Or at least, that’s according to the woman responsible for the whole thing.
In a press conference over the weekend flanked by African-American leaders including Jesse Jackson, Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx repeatedly claimed that her ill-received decision to drop all charges against Smollett were based on “facts, evidence, and the law.”
She then went on to suggest she’s been targeted for backlash not because she let a hate crime hoaxer off the hook with barely a slap on the wrist, but because she’s a black woman.
“I think we have to ask ourselves, ‘What is this really about?’” Foxx suggested. “I've been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about. And as someone who has lived in this city and came up through the projects of this city to serve as the first African American woman in this role, it's disheartening to me.”
“When we get in these positions, that somehow, goalposts change,” she went on.
Kim Foxx suggests racism behind criticism of her dropping all charges against @JussieSmollett:
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 7, 2019
“I've been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about. ... As the first African American woman in this role, it's disheartening to me" the goalposts have shifted. pic.twitter.com/Z5dLAVdUW7
Foxx then suggested that “white nationalists” had something to do with the discussion.
Foxx later said she didn't make this about her race, but rather "white nationalists" who attended the police union's protest against her did. (She's presumably referring to the Proud Boys, who aren't actually white nationalists.) pic.twitter.com/o6wh3Flgz0
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 7, 2019
Interestingly, it’s not necessarily white people who’ve had the biggest problem with Foxx – who’s already got a pretty sketchy history that’s completely unrelated to her skin color.
In fact, it’s Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (who's Jewish) and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson (a black man) who’ve had the most negative to say about Foxx’s decision to let Smollett off the hook. In fact, a local police union is even calling for a federal investigation into Foxx’s alleged mishandling of the case, and their complaint is based on just about anything but her race.
In fact, about 80 percent of polled Americans - including 71 percent of blacks - say Smollett got "special treatment."