Jewish Actor Hospitalized After Anti-Gay, Racist Attack: ‘This Is MAGA Country’

Actor Jussie Smollett Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer January 29, 2019

Actor Jussie Smollett is in the hospital after being brutally attacked in Chicago in what police are treating as a likely hate crime. The 35-year-old star of the hit show “Empire” was reportedly approached by two people who yelled racist and homophobic slurs, then physically beat him and poured an “unknown chemical substance” onto him, according to a report by the Chicago police.

“At some point during the incident, one of the offenders wrapped a rope around the victim’s neck,” the report continues. The attackers fled, and the “possible racially-charged assault” is under investigation by the Area Central Detectives. Smollett was able to take himself to the hospital; police report that he is in “good condition.”

The charismatic young actor and singer has been open about his gay identity and is an outspoken champion of LGBT and black rights. His father, an Ashkenazi Jew, died just before Smollett’s rise to fame.

“I don’t believe that we were created to hate,” he told Out Magazine in 2016, adding that executives behind “Empire” have asked him to cool it with public statements about violence against black Americans. “I believe that we were created only to love,” he added. “Love is the root of the happiest of times and of wars. Love, or lack of love — but love is the root of everything.”

TMZ reports that Smollett’s attackers yelled “This is MAGA country,” and called the actor “That f***ot ‘Empire’ n*****” before pouring bleach on him and putting him in the noose.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO