All the World’s a Stage: Jussie Smollett and the Performance of Victimhood by Arsalan Haq
I
n the last few decades, an ethical turn has come to define our present moment in which violence, in all its ugly forms, is taken to trial by the very voices it aims to suppress. In the American context, grassroots movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too have spotlighted the cultures of aggression and institutional violence, as well as the systemic erasure and silencing of victims from all across the marginal spectrum—Women, persons of color, queer and trans folk, the undocumented and so on. With voices of the marginalized and persecuted finally taking center stage, a new kind of academic and popular interest has shaped around the categories of victimhood and vulnerability. And although even a cursory look at history books will confirm the existence of victims across time, there is something unique about the modern victim. The visibility and recognition afforded by present-day media channels have recast “victim” as a category. Not only has there been a shift in attitude toward victims from one of suspicion to immediate sympathy, there is also a shift in their status. Because of its various mediatizations, representations, and narrative twists, victimhood, I argue, has indeed
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risen from the trenches but bearing traces of social distinction, occupying a moral high ground that is simultaneously precious and precarious. Focusing on the alleged hate crime hoax perpetrated by television celebrity Jussie Smollett, I endeavor to read the complexities and inversions that victimhood has so recently and rapidly undergone, and the percolating risk of it devolving from a socio-cultural practice to a staged performance. On January 29th, 2019 Jussie Smollett reported a hate crime. He was walking back to his Chicago apartment at two in the morning when two men in ski masks jumped him. They hurled racial and homophobic slurs, and declared America “MAGA country” before hitting Smollett and wrapping a noose around his neck. America was horrified. News of the incident sparked a firestorm, with support pouring in from celebrities, politicians and fans alike. In a since-deleted tweet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the attack “an affront to our humanity.” Cory Booker dubbed it a “modern-day lynching.” Pressure mounted on Chicago police who assigned at least a dozen detectives on the case. On February 1st, Smollett issued a statement, thank-
