*Jussie Smollett attended the 2022 BET Awards on Sunday, marking his return to the red carpet after his high-profile hate legal case in Chicago.
The former “Empire” star was released from a Chicago jail in March after serving six days of his 150-day sentence for five counts of felony disorderly conduct. According to the New York Post, Smollett attended the awards show to promote his directorial debut, “B-Boy Blues” — which is streaming on BET+. Many social media users were outraged that Smollett was allowed to attend the event.
“That’s crazy how Jussie Smollett is out & about, showing his face like that situation never happened,” one Twitter user commented.
“Who let Jussie Smollett into the #BETAwards?” another Twitter wrote. “This n – – – a faked a hate crime and blamed white people for it, and got a slap on the wrist. If you got money, regardless of race, you have privilege.”
READ MORE: Jussie Smollett Talks Hate Crime Case, Says ‘I’m ‘not A Piece Of S***!’ | Video
In March, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months probation after being convicted last year of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in Chicago in January 2019, and then lying to police about it.
After the sentence was handed down, Smollett exploded in the courtroom, loudly proclaiming his innocence and suggesting something might happen to him in county jail by repeatedly making clear that he is “not suicidal.”
During the sentencing hearing, Judge James Linn chastised and shamed Smollett, called him a liar, and accused him of committing purgery during his own testimony. The judge also noted that Smollett’s ego and narcissism led to him allegedly plotting the homophobic hate crime.
In an interview with Sway Calloway’s SiriusXM show, “Sway in the Morning” last week, Smollett insisted that he did not lie about the attack.
“If I had done this, I’d be a piece of s – – t — and I don’t think that’s really questionable,” Smollett told Sway, adding that being a black gay man makes it impossible for him to stage the attack. “If I had done something like this, it would mean that I stuck my fist in the pain of black African Americans in this country for over 400 years.”
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