The victims ' time is now

"Caroline Hainer on ”rasistattacken” against the Empire-the star – and why the suffered evidence must take place"

"This is a kulturartikel which is a part of Aftonbladet's opinionsjournalistik."

"Jussie Smollett plays the black, gay Jamal in the tv series Empire. Both the character Smolletts acting has been hailed as nuanced and complex. He is also an award-winning musician and has released two music albums. On 29 January this year he signed that he had been attacked in Chicago by two men in skidmasker who poured bleach over him and screaming homophobic and racist words."

"Many, including prominent actors and politicians, expressed support and despair on social media. Senator Kamala Harris described the attack as a lynching in modern times."

"A month after the incident was arrested Smollett and after a quick investigation found reason to believe that he staged the attack himself. Today, he is indicted on 16 points, including a false police report and disorderly conduct."

"Why would you stage a racist attack? ”He has used racism as the pain and anger to advance their career,” said Eddie Johnson, the police chief in Chicago. The attention, someone says. Money say others, who argue that the attack was a way for Smollett to get paid more in the Empire. According to skvallersidan Celebrity net worth, he got 100 000 dollars per episode during the series ' last season. It's not bad. After having come out as gay-he has also omfamnats of the lgbtq world, so attention has not been lacking."

"Now he has lost his role in the Empire and his reputation is kvaddat. He gets convicted on all charges the maximum penalty is 48 years in prison."

"You sometimes speak that we are living in a offerkultur, that there would be a sort of value in the harm, by publicly pointing out someone would have a moral advantage. Where redress is sought in the media rather than in the right. That personal tragedies can also profiteras on, and strengthen their career. "

"And of course one can speak of a culture where we often talk about our personal problems and setbacks, the experiences you sooner had not dared to talk about. Participants in the Eurovision song contest, which tells of how they came forward after the tragedies, and now standing here on a stage, with real strength in his voice. Sommarpratare in P1 has taken the opportunity to reveal the abuse and familjehemligheter. The man becomes more interesting then? Perhaps one stands out? Maybe the audience sympathetic set already from the beginning of the show?"

"now is a time when we listen to the victims. Only in the last year, several documentaries have come up where only the victim's side is heard, for example, the Leaving Neverland (SVT) and We survived R Kelly (SVT) about Michael Jackson and R Kelly's alleged abuse, Abducted in plain sight (Netflix) about the family whose daughter was kidnapped by a friend and neighbor. Metoo-the movement was about the victim's stories and the perpetrators ' silence. "

"But to openly tell me about difficult experiences need not be a deliberate and cunning strategy to win sympathy or to get a book contract. It may be our time's culture of openness and accessibility. Or that hate crimes, sexual harassment, abuse and other atrocities actually happening and now manage more tell. It would be so easy."

"IN the united states have the human rights group the Southern Poverty Law Center surveyed over 1,000 hate groups. They define a hate as an organization, active or online, whose official stance is against groups based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality or könstillhöringhet. The number of increased for the fourth year, you row last year. According to the Expo increases rasideologisk activism significantly in Sweden. A staged attack does not make these facts less true, or a real attack less serious, something that the rhetoric about the ”offerkultur” and ”naming and shaming” unfortunately, this seems to lead to."

"It's a dangerous and difficult time for young men today,” said president of the Trump when he was talking about Metoo-the movement. He said that there is a big risk for men to become false trakasserianklagade of women. Greater than for women to actually be harassed, he said implicitly. It is a dangerous oscillation in the rhetoric because it's wrong."

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"We still live in a time when våldtäktsanklagelser met with skepticism and not more than 11 per cent of all reported to the police rape leads to court, less than four percent to a conviction. It is not a dangerous time for men as much as it is – as always – is a dangerous time for women. "

"Hate crime takes place and hate crimes are targeted against specific groups. Smollett happened to fit into two of these: he is black and gay. For in what is called the offerkultur may not be all of the place. Rasifierade, lgbtq and non-binary people, for example. Non-swedes, funktionsvarierade, sub-class and low-income are at a real disadvantage when it comes to injustice. "

"There are not many book contract and karriärfördelar to get at, say, a sextrakasserad skolmatstant or a battered rome. It is not as easy for them to fit in the trendy offerkoftan."

"It is not ”a dangerous time for men,” we live in. Hopefully, it is a dangerous time for those who commit abuse. But more true is, unfortunately, that it is a dangerous time for them, we don't listen, those who do not have a voice. Those who fall into all the categories that do not fit under the offerkoftan. Some of them happen to be men. Some of them may feel so invisible that they need to stage an attack on themselves for others to understand the pain."

"Some might just like it when people feel sorry for them, and faking an attack to get paid more."

"But we can never really know if we do not first take the statements and testimony seriously. We have to assume that their accusations are true and investigate them. "

"What kind of society would we otherwise have? A worse version than we already have, the one where you assume that all who claim to be victims are lying, that it is chic to have experienced something terrible and that it is cool to belong to a vulnerable minority. "