IT ALSO HELPS TO BE INTERSECTIONAL: Dropping Jussie Smollett Charges Says It’s Okay To Lie If You’re Woke.

Smollett may have been a sloppy criminal, since the police easily discovered his deception. But he was not wrong to think that the country would believe his bizarre story without hesitation because the media is hungry for stories that will “prove” that their anger and disgust with Trump and his supporters is justified. Smollett understood that, in this hyper-partisan and divisive moment in our history, many Americans are all too ready to view politics through a racial lens that will not merely bring attention to discrimination and hate but also discredit everyone with whom they disagree.

Hoaxes like this or the ones that falsely accused the Duke Lacrosse team and a University of Virginia fraternity of racist and sexual violence may discourage victims of genuine hate crimes from coming forward. Whether or not that is true, what is at stake here is that, by essentially clearing someone who manufactured a hate crime, the Chicago prosecutors have validated the notion that so long as the purpose of a lie about race is to bring attention to hate against blacks and gays, it is not something for which anyone truly needs to apologize.

Once the struggle against racism and violence gets mixed up with notions about race in which truth is subordinated to political theories, cases like Smollett’s are inevitable.

And to those pushing “social justice” instead of actual justice, desirable.