If you’re going to fake a hate crime, make sure you don’t leave a trail of loose ends that leads right back to you.

Take Jussie Smollett, for example, the American actor who was most well-known for his role on TV show Empire.

We say was, because he will surely be sacked and removed from the show, and his name will now forever be synonymous with possibly the worst way to try and achieve a pay raise in history.

Jussie, man, I know that asking your boss for more money can be awkward, but you’ve had a shocker.

Our man Trevor agrees, and he dedicated some time on The Daily Show to unpacking how, when, and why it all went so wrong:

Smollett, you’re a fool. Now those who refuse to acknowledge hate crimes in America have ammo to dismiss future attacks, and MAGA hat-wearing Americans are rightfully up in arms about the smear attempts.

Before we go, some stats via Vox:

According to the FBI, about 58 percent of single-bias incidents (which make up the great majority of hate crimes) in 2017 were motivated by race, and around 28 percent of all single-bias incidents were anti-black in particular. Nearly 16 percent were motivated by sexual orientation, and most those incidents targeted gay men…

The numbers paint a grisly picture: Thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands, are victims of a hate crime each year in the US. These crimes are most often motivated by race, but also sexual orientation and other characteristics. And the crimes are by and large violent.

America has a hate crime problem, and Jussie Smollett’s lie doesn’t change that fact.

[source:vox]