A racial hoax occurs when a person (usually the purported victim) falsely claims that a crime was committed by member of a specific race. The crime may be fictitious, or may be an actual crime.
[Russell-Brown, p. 70 defines a racial hoax as "when someone fabricates a crime and blames it on another person because of ]heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
or when an actual crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
has been committed and the perpetrator falsely blames someone because of heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
race".
The term was popularised by
Katheryn Russell-Brown in her book ''
The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions'' (1998). A racial hoax can be performed by a person of any race, against a person of any race. According to Russell-Brown, racial hoaxes where whites falsely accuse
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
are most likely to receive media attention and create a more acute social problem due to the
criminal black man stereotype.
[
]
Concept
Patricia L. Brougham argued that the common stereotype
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
of criminal black men has enabled the use of racial hoaxes against this group. Brougham writes that these stereotypes cause law enforcement agencies to believe that a black perpetrator exists when in reality the allegation is false.
Russell-Brown argues that racial hoaxes are devised, perpetrated, and successful because they take advantage of fears and stereotypes.[ According to her, ]white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
-on-black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
hoaxes are the most likely to receive media attention and to cause social and economic problems. She argues that anyone performing a racial hoax should face criminal charges, particularly if a black person is targeted, and that hoaxes targeting black people create more severe problems than those against other racial groups.[Russell-Brown, p. 71.] Letha A. See in ''Violence as Seen Through a Prism of Color'' (2001) sees the hoax as a unique method used against specific racial groups, rather than against individuals.[See, p. 13.] Sally S. Simpson and Robert Agnew
Robert Agnew (June 4, 1899 – November 8, 1983) was an American movie actor who worked mostly in the silent film era, making 65 films in both the silent and sound eras. He was born in Dayton, Kentucky.
A review of ''The Heart of Broadway'' i ...
suggest that the unusual nature of some racial hoaxes can cause them to be dismissed.[Simpson and Agnew, p. 56.]
Between 1987 and 1996 in the United States, Russell-Brown documented 67 racial hoax cases, and notes the following: 70 percent were white-on-black hoaxes; more than half were exposed within a week; hoaxes are most frequently used to allege assault, rape, or murder; hoax perpetrators were charged with filing a false report in about 45 percent of cases. These cases represent only a fraction of the total number of cases because racial hoaxes are not reported as such and most crimes are not covered in the media.[ According to Russell-Brown, a high proportion of the white-on-black hoaxes were perpetrated by police and judicial officers; she documents seven such cases. Historically the most common type of hoax perpe against black males was rape. Because of fears over the 'black rapist', Russell-Brown suggests "it is not surprising that so many White women have created Black male rapists as their fictional criminals".][Russell-Brown, pg. 79.]
An alternative type of hoax occurs when a member of a disadvantaged group pretends to be a victim of a hate crime often in order to inflame societal racial tensions, gain social capital through legitimizing grievance and gaining victim status or to distract attention from their own misconduct in another activity.
In the United States there has been little legislative response to racial hoaxes.[Simpson and Agnew, p. 5.] Russel-Brown wrote that (at the time of the book written) only New Jersey considered new laws to criminalize racial hoaxes.
Cases
Scottsboro Boys
In 1931, two white women falsely accused nine African-American teenagers of raping them on a train in Alabama. All but one were convicted and sentenced to death by all-white juries.
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African-American who was accused of "offending" a white woman in Money, Mississippi
Money is an unincorporated community near Greenwood in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta. It has fewer than 100 residents, down from 400 in the early 1950s when a cotton mill operated there. Money is located on ...
, in 1955. He was abducted and lynched several days later. In 2017, author Timothy Tyson released details of a 2008 interview with Carolyn Bryant. He claimed that during the interview she had disclosed that she had fabricated parts of her testimony at the trial of his accused killers. Tyson said that during the interview, Bryant retracted her testimony that Till had grabbed her around her waist and uttered obscenities, saying "that part's not true". However, the 'recanting' claim made by Tyson was not on his tape-recording of the interview. "It is true that that part is not on tape because I was setting up the tape recorder" Tyson said. Donham's daughter-in-law, Marsha Bryant, who was present for the two interviews, said her mother-in-law "never recanted." The support Tyson provided to back up his claim, was a handwritten note that he said had been made at the time.
Tawana Brawley
Tawana Brawley, an African-American teenager, was found in a trash bag covered in faeces after being missing from her home in Wappingers Falls, New York
Wappingers Falls is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 5,522. The community was named for the cascade in Wappinger Creek. The Wappingers Falls post office covers areas in the tow ...
for four days. She claimed that she had been abducted and raped by four white men, and her legal team subsequently claimed that the authorities were protecting the assailants because they were white, sparking a debate about systemic racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...
in New York. A grand jury later concluded that Brawley had fabricated her story and had deliberately set things up to make it look like she had been assaulted. Brawley's legal team - Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
, Alton Maddox and Vernon Mason - were accused of having exploited the story to trigger racial outrage and advance their careers,[ and one of the men accused successfully sued Brawley, Sharpton, Maddox and Mason for ]defamation
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
Charles Stuart
The case of Charles Stuart is often cited as an example of a racial hoax. On October 23, 1989, in Boston, Stuart and his pregnant wife Carol were driving when, according to Stuart, a black gunman forced his way into the car and shot them both, hitting Carol in the head and Stuart in the body. Still alive, Stuart drove away and called the police, who conducted a search of Mission Hill, Boston
Mission Hill is a square mile (2 square km), primarily residential Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, bordered by Roxbury, Boston, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and Fenway-Kenmore and the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, Brookline. It is ...
, a mostly black area. Carol died later that night; the baby, delivered by caesarean section
Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or mo ...
, died 17 days later.
Stuart picked out Willie Bennett, a black man, from a photo lineup. The police shifted their attention onto Stuart when Stuart's brother Matthew told them that Stuart had committed the murder, and when they noted inconsistencies in Stuart's account. On January 4, 1990, Stuart committed suicide. The police later learned that Stuart had committed the murder to cash in on his wife's insurance policy.
Jesse Anderson
In 1992, Jesse Anderson became infamous for stabbing his wife Barbara E. Anderson thirty-seven times while in the parking lot of a T.G.I. Friday's in Milwaukee. Anderson blamed two African-American men for attacking him and his wife, and even presented police with a Los Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...
basketball cap he claimed to have knocked off the head of one of the assailants.
When details of the crime were made public, a university student told police Anderson had purchased the hat from him a few days earlier. According to employees at a military surplus store
A surplus store, military surplus store or disposals store in the Commonwealth of Nations sells items that are used, or purchased but unused, and no longer needed. The surplus is often military, government or industrial excess often called army-na ...
, the red-handled fishing knife which was used to murder Barbara was sold to Anderson only a few weeks earlier. Police stated that the store was the only one in Milwaukee that sold that type of knife. Anderson was shortly thereafter charged with murder, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment.[Once A Victim, Now A Suspect](_blank)
ChicagoTribune.com; accessed 16 June 2016.
Susan Smith
In October 1994, in South Carolina, Susan Smith drowned her sons by putting them in her car and letting it roll into John D. Long Lake. She called the police and stated that an armed black man had hijacked her car with her two sons inside. After an extensive manhunt, Smith confessed that she had killed her sons, and, in July 1995, was sentenced to life imprisonment.[Russell-Brown, p. 69.][Markovitz, p. 85.]
Sef Gonzales
In 2001, After killing his family, Sef Gonzales disposed of the murder weapons and the clothing and the size 7 running shoes he was wearing at the time of the murders. He showered, changed clothes, and spray painted the words "Fuck off Asians" on a wall in the house in an attempt to fool investigating police into believing that his family had been the victims of a hate crime. News stories in Australia and the Philippines at the time reported police were still establishing a motive for the killings and focused mostly on slain Teddy Gonzales's past business dealings.
Jennifer Wilbanks
Jennifer Wilbanks was a white woman who ran away from home on April 26, 2005, in order to avoid her upcoming wedding with John Mason, her fiancé. Her disappearance from Duluth, Georgia
Duluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, Gwinnett County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Located north of Interstate 85, it is approximately northeast of Atlanta.
As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, Duluth had a ...
, sparked a nationwide search and intensive media coverage, including media speculation that Mason had killed her. On April 29, Wilbanks called Mason from Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
, New Mexico, and falsely claimed that she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a Hispanic man and a white woman. Wilbanks told investigators that she was abducted while running, and tied-up with rope in the back of a van, and was raped by a Hispanic man and forced to perform sexual acts with a white woman. Wilbanks pled no contest to a felony charge of providing false information to law enforcement, and served no time in jail.
Duke lacrosse case
The Duke lacrosse case was a criminal investigation into a 2006 false accusation of rape made against three members of the men's lacrosse team at Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
by Crystal Mangum
Crystal Gail Mangum (born July 18, 1978) is a former exotic dancer and convicted murderer from Durham, North Carolina, who is best known for having made false allegations of rape against lacrosse players in the 2006 Duke lacrosse case. The fact ...
, an African American student at North Carolina Central University
North Carolina Central University (NCCU or NC Central) is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from b ...
["Crystal Gail Mangum: Profile of the Duke Rape Accuser"](_blank)
''Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
'', April 11, 2007. who worked as a stripper, dancer and escort.[Alexandria Harper]
"Woman behind Duke lacrosse scandal speaks out"
''The A&T Register'', April 28, 200
Archived
2009-05-16
Many people involved in, or commenting on the case, including Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
*Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...
prosecutor Mike Nifong
Michael Byron Nifong (born September 14, 1950) is an American former attorney and convicted criminal. He served as the district attorney for Durham County, North Carolina until he was removed, disbarred, and jailed following court findings concer ...
(who was later disbarred), called or suggested that the alleged assault was a hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
.
Ashley Todd mugging hoax
In October 2008, Ashley Todd, a volunteer for the U.S. presidential campaign of Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
, falsely claimed to have been the victim of robbery and politically motivated physical assault
An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...
by a supporter of McCain's Democratic opponent Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
.
The story broke less than two weeks before the 2008 United States presidential election
The election of the president and the vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not dire ...
on November 4. Todd later confessed to inventing the story after surveillance photos and a polygraph test were presented. She was charged with filing a false police report, and entered a probation program for first-time offenders.
State University of New York at Albany bus attack hoax
In January 2016, two black and one Hispanic female University at Albany (SUNY) students (Alexis Briggs, Asha Burwell and Ariel Agudio) gained national attention when they accused 10 to 12 white men and women of harassment and assault and that "racial slurs were used by the perpetrators" while riding a public CDTA
The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) is a New York state public-benefit corporations, New York State public-benefit corporation overseeing a number of multi-modal parts of public transportation in the Capital District, New York, C ...
bus. Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
tweeted her support for them, asserting "There's no excuse for racism and violence on a college campus."
The three were eventually indicted by a grand jury and arraigned for "10 misdemeanor charges, including assault, attempted assault and false reporting, along with a violation for harassment." Furthermore, the university expelled Agudio and Burwell and suspended Briggs for two years.
Agudio and Burwell faced up to two years in jail for false reporting conviction but were sentenced to three years' probation, 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine when they were found guilty of two charges out of the original eleven. Briggs accepted a plea deal from the district attorney's office of community service in exchange for a public apology.
Officer Sherry Hall shooting hoax
In September 2016, Georgia police officer Sherry Hall claimed "a 6-foot, 230-pound African American man" had shot her, and that only her protective vest saved her life. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is the state bureau of investigation of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is an independent, statewide agency that provides assistance to Georgia's criminal justice system in the areas of criminal investiga ...
determined that she fabricated the whole incident and charged her with four felonies, including evidence tampering and giving false statements to investigators. Hall was convicted of 11 criminal charges, including "making false statements, violating her oath and tampering with evidence," and sentenced to 15 years in prison and 23 years on probation.
Maria Daly BLM burglary hoax
In October 2016, Maria Daly, the wife of a police officer, reported a burglary at her family home. She stated that jewelry and money had been stolen, and that her house was tagged with graffiti referencing the Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
movement. Police determined that the entire account was false, and charged Daly with filing a false police report and misleading a police investigation. Daly eventually pleaded guilty, essentially confirming that she had staged the burglary and spray-painted the house herself.
Jason Stokes BLM arson
In August 2016, former firefighter Jason Stokes claimed that the Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
movement had set fire to his home and written "lie with pigs, fry like bacon" on the wall in retaliation for his "Blue Lives Matter
Blue Lives Matter (also known as Police Lives Matter) is a countermovement in the United States advocating that those who are prosecuted and convicted of killing law enforcement officers should be sentenced under hate crime statutes. It was ...
" banner. Police charged Stokes with arson, concluding that he had set the fire himself and written the offending message to cover up the crime, and had also booby-trapped the house to hinder investigation. A jury acquitted Stokes on May 15, 2017, agreeing that it was arson but not finding "enough evidence to convict Stokes."
Sherri Papini disappearance hoax
Sherri Papini disappeared from her husband and family on November 2, 2016, reportedly while out jogging a mile from her home in Redding, California
Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border wi ...
. Papini was 34 years old at the time. She reappeared three weeks later on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
Day, November 24, claiming that she was freed by her captors at 4:30 that morning still wearing restraints. According to Shasta County
Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 census. The county seat is Redding.
Shasta ...
Sheriff Tom Bosenko, in interviews Papini said she was held by two Hispanic women who took steps to keep their faces hidden from her, either by wearing masks or by keeping Papini's head covered. On March 3, 2022, Sherri Papini was arrested by the FBI, accused of lying to federal agents and faking her kidnapping to spend time with her ex-boyfriend away from her husband and family.
Yasmin Seweid Trump fans subway harassment
During December 2016, 18-year-old Yasmin Seweid claimed that a group of white men approached her on a New York City subway and stated "Donald Trump! Donald Trump! Fucking terrorist, get out of this country, you don't belong here, terrorist, get out of this country." She also claimed one of the men grabbed her bag and broke the strap. Seweid later admitted that she lied about the incident because she did not want her strict father to find out that she was out past her curfew drinking alcohol. Seweid was arrested and plead guilty to falsely reporting an incident and disorderly conduct.
Walker Daugherty illegal immigrant shooting hoax
In January 2017, hunting guide Walker Daugherty and his client Edwin Roberts were both shot near the Texas-Mexico border. Daugherty and his fellow guide, Michael Bryant, told authorities that they were attacked by immigrants who had entered the country illegally and tried to steal an RV. All the bullet casings and projectiles found on the scene, however, matched guns belonging to the hunting party. Investigation determined that Daugherty shot Roberts and Bryant shot Daugherty. A grand jury indicted Bryant and Daugherty on charges of "using deadly conduct by discharging firearms in the direction of others," a felony. Roberts and his wife subsequently filed a personal injury lawsuit against Bryant, Daugherty, and their business seeking $1 million in damages for negligence.
Breana Harmon abduction hoax
In 2017, 19 year-old white woman Breana Harmon from Denison, Texas
Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, Grayson County, Texas, United States. It is south of the Texas–Oklahoma border. The population was 22,682 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Denison is part of the Texoma region and is one ...
, falsely claimed she was abducted and gang-raped by three black men. She initially was in an argument with her boyfriend, then ran away and intentionally cut herself to give the appearance of an assault. She then stripped-down to a T-shirt and underwear, and went into a church and told the people there that she had been raped by three masked black men. She later pled guilty to charges of filing a false police report.
Sherita Dixon-Cole Rape hoax
In May 2018 Sherita Dixon-Cole, a black human resources professional accused a white Texas state trooper of kidnapping and sexually assaulting her during a DUI arrest. The story got international attention and was amplified by tweets and articles made by civil rights activist Shaun King
Jeffery Shaun King (born September 17, 1979) is an American writer, civil rights activist and co-founder of Real Justice PAC. King uses social media to promote social justice causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement.
King was raised ...
who published the officer's name. The trooper arrested Dixon-Cole for drunk driving, during which she claimed he pulled into an alley and forced himself on her. The Texas Department of Public Safety released two hours of body camera
A body camera, bodycam, body worn video (BWV), body-worn camera, or wearable camera is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system.
Body cameras have a range of uses and designs, of which the best-known use is as a part of poli ...
footage, the entire arrest, proving that there was no assault. Dixon's attorney published a statement admitting that the charges were false and apologizing to the officer. However, while Shaun King wrote an article admitting that he was lied to and the charges were false, no apologies were made.
Smith College case
In 2018, Oumou Kanoute, a student at Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
, claimed that she had been harassed by janitorial staff and campus police while eating her lunch. A private investigation later revealed that Kanoute had misrepresented and fabricated certain details about the encounter.
Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax
In 2019, Jussie Smollett
Jussie Smollett (, born June 21, 1982) is an American actor and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1991 debuting in ''The Mighty Ducks (film), The Mighty Ducks'' (1992). In 2015, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox Bro ...
, an American actor and singer on the Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
drama series ''Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'', made national news for fabricating a racially-motivated attack. On January, 22, a letter arrived at the Chicago studio of Smollett's employer that was addressed to Smollett and depicted a stick figure hanging from a tree with a gun pointing towards it. It read "Smollett, Jussie you will die" and "MAGA
Maga or MAGA may refer to:
MAGA
* Make America Great Again, a political slogan famously used by Donald Trump
* Museo MAGA, a modern-art museum in Gallarate, Italy
* ''maga'', the logo of the Cornish Language Partnership, an organisation promot ...
" and contained a white powder determined to be Tylenol Tylenol may refer to:
* Paracetamol (acetaminophen), a medication used to treat pain and fever
* Tylenol (brand)
Tylenol () is a brand of medication, advertised for reducing pain, reducing fever, and relieving the symptoms of allergies, cold, ...
. On January 29, 2019, Smollett told police that he was attacked in the early morning of that day in the 300 block of East Lower North Water Street in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
's Streeterville
Streeterville is a neighborhood in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, north of the Chicago River. It is bounded by the river on the south, the Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue on the west, and ...
neighborhood by two men in ski mask
A balaclava, also known as a balaclava helmet or ski mask, is a form of cloth headgear designed to expose only part of the face, usually the eyes and mouth. Depending on style and how it is worn, only the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the front ...
s who called him racial
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
and homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
slurs in what was initially investigated as a hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
. Smollett was indicted on February 20, 2019, for disorderly conduct
Disorderly conduct is a crime in most jurisdictions in the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan. Typically, "disorderly conduct" makes it a crime to be drunk in public, to " disturb the peace", or to loiter in certain are ...
consisting of paying two Nigerian-American brothers to stage a fake hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
assault on him and filing a false police report. Smollett's defense team reached a deal with prosecutors on March 26, 2019, in which all charges were dropped in return for Smollett performing community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bond. On March 27, 2019, it was announced that the FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
would be investigating as to why the charges were dismissed. On February 11, 2020, Smollett was re-indicted by Special Prosecutor Dan Webb on six counts of disorderly conduct for lying to the police. A jury delivered its verdict on December 9, 2021, finding Smollett guilty on five of the six counts.
Amari Allen dreadlock cutting hoax
In September 2019, Amari Allen, a black middle school student in Virginia, claimed that three male white classmates pinned her down on the playground and cut off "chunks" of her dreadlocks. According to Allen, the boys called her "ugly" and her hair "nappy." Her grandmother asked on national TV for the boys to be dismissed from the school. However, security camera footage did not corroborate her story and eventually Allen confessed that she had cut her hair herself.
Anayeli Dominguez Peña
In March 2019, Anayeli Dominguez Peña, a student at California's University of La Verne
The University of La Verne (ULV) is a private university in La Verne, California. Founded in 1891, the university is composed of the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Business & Public Management, the LaFetra College of Education, College o ...
, reported that a racist Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
message had been sent to several members of "Decolonize ULV", a student-led antiracist group. The next day Dominguez Peña claimed that she found her car on fire outside her apartment. Two months later Dominguez Peña reported that she had been assaulted by a masked man. In March 2020, Dominguez Peña was charged with falsifying her reports.
Rachel Richardson BYU Racist Heckling
Rachel Richardson claimed that she was called racial slurs throughout a match against BYU while playing for the Duke Women's volleyball team on August 26, 202
Her godmother, Lesa Pamplin, tweeted about the incident, which went viral on Twitter. The allegations quickly received extensive national attention from the media, politicians, and celebrities. Richardson used the allegation to promote anti-racism trainin
An extensive investigation by BYU, which reviewed raw videos from all angles of the match and interviewed over 50 witnesses that included Duke athletic personnel and players and African-Americans in the vicinity of the alleged racial slurs, found no evidence to corroborate Richardson's claims of racial heckling or racial slurs during the gam
The findings supported a previous police investigation unsubstantiating Richardson's claim
The ban of a student initially identified as the perpetrator was rescinded following BYU's investigation.
See also
* Blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
, a false accusation against the Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
* False accusation of rape
A false accusation of rape happens when a person states that they or another person have been raped when no rape has occurred.
Although some studies attempt to characterize the prevalence of false accusation of rape, according to a 2013 book o ...
* Racial bias in criminal news in the United States
Racial biases are a form of implicit bias, which refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual's understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass unfavorable assessments, are often ...
* ''To Kill a Mockingbird
''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...
'', a novel and subsequent film and play centering on racially charged accusations of a crime
References
Sources
* Russell-Brown, Katheryn (1998). '' The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions'' se
Google Books
New York University Press
New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University.
History
NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown.
Directors
* Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–1932 ...
.
* Simpson, Sally S.; Agnew, Robert. (2000)
''Of Crime and Criminality: The Use of Theory in Everyday Life''
Pine Forge Press
SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California.
It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...
.
* Henry, Stuart; Lanier, Mark. (2001)
''What Is Crime?: Controversies Over the Nature of Crime and What to Do about It''
Rowman & Littlefield
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...
.
* See, Letha A. (Lee) (2001)
''Violence as Seen Through a Prism of Color''
Haworth Press
Haworth Press was a publisher of scholarly, academic and trade books, and approximately 200 peer-reviewed academic journals. It was founded in 1978 by the publishing industry executives Bill Cohen and Patrick Mcloughlin. The name was taken from ...
.
* Markovitz, Jonathan (2004)
''Legacies of Lynching: Racial Violence and Memory''
University of Minnesota Press
The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018.
Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...
.
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History of racism in the United States
Hoaxes in the United States
Race and law in the United States
Race in the United States
Race and crime in the United States
Race and crime
Racism
Racism in the United States