It’s Sunday, February 17th and Twitter is heating up with a new trending top #JussieSmollettHoax. My heart drops. I start feverishly researching the latest development of an unconscionable incident. Jussie, an openly gay, African American actor ( famous for his role as Jamal Lyon on 20th Century Fox’s hit show ‘Empire’), singer/songwriter and activist alleged that in the early morning hours of January 29th he was attacked by two people “yelling out racial and homophobic slurs” in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, IL. The actor told police the two men yelled “‘Empire’ fa***t” and “‘Empire’ n***er” “This MAGA Country, n***er” while striking him, before putting a noose around his neck and pouring an unknown substance on him. As a result, Jussie was catapulted into a media frenzy as a victim of a hate crime.
Almost immediately, the story garnered support from colleagues, fans, celebrities and even politicians and I can understand why. Our current social climate in this country is plagued with division on many controversial issues from immigration, to criminal justice reform. Widespread inequalities relative to race, religion and sexual orientation perpetuated by broken political and economic infrastructures have shaped our communities’ hearts and minds to both believe and expect… the worst.
At the time of this writing new evidence has come out that the two men who have been arrested in connection with the attack went from persons of interest to potential suspects to being released without charges. Sources have told news reports that Smollett allegedly paid the two men $3500 to stage the attack and that all three men allegedly rehearsed their plan just days before everything played out. This new information, though still not fully investigated, led to the creation of the #JussieSmollettHoax Twitter trending topic, memes and I’m sure a dance video will go viral soon. I’m just as concerned with communities who rushed to believe him as I am with those who now rush to dismiss him.
There is a popular term that I use with my staff called ‘confirmation bias’. Confirmation bias is our tendency to cherry pick information that is consistent with what we already believe is true. In doing so, we tend to stop gathering information that would conflict with what we believe. We accept information that agrees with our beliefs and ignore or reject contrary information. This essentially makes us bias and eliminates objective thinking. It happens to the best of us. In the case of Jussie Smollett it happened to many of us… including highly influential leaders… and its dangerous.
As leaders we have a responsibility to ensure that our decisions are well informed, prudent and just. I believe emotions are very valuable pieces to our decision making process that should not be ignored. Studies show empathetic leadership builds strong teams, increases retention and productivity. However, we do our teams and organizations great disservices if we lead with our hearts and don’t balance our actions with objective, evidence-based decision making. Our teams are counting on us to exemplify a proper balance of empathy and judicious thinking. How do you overcome confirmation bias? Ask questions. Purposefully seek out information that dis-confirms what you believe. Be “facts first” minded.
The facts of the Jussie Smollett case are still coming in so I cannot say whether or not it was a “hoax.” What is interesting is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has since deleted her supportive tweet from her Twitter page.
Great read!Confirmation Bias is something that I had not heard of. I’ve had many thoughts on this case. Would he lie? IF so, WHY would he lie?…it hurts him..he could go to prison, it will prevent others from speaking up, he becomes a target in his own community, if this IS a hoax. I also thought of how easilypeople were to dismiss him and eager to believe the police. The police have a job and need to close a media frenzied case. They will find any reason to make this go away. Cops are not always known for honesty and Ava Duvernay pointed out some things to remember about the Chicago PD. From all of this, I was also reminded to stick to the facts. I plan to see the EVIDENCE and not ride the hearsay train. I cannot imagine what Jussie is going through. He received hate mail before and he is much more of a target now. I say to pray for ALL involved and wait for the investigation to play out. A lot of details of this case are coming out…why? Most investigations are kept private until there are facts to report. In the interim, everyone be careful of what you share and post because it CAN follow you. Thanks for the great article!
Thanks Ti for the comment!!! This story is a lesson for all of us to be “facts first” minded! We’ll see how the story unfolds!
This waa very thought provoking GiGi! Excellent Read! I will be praying for Jussie. Still waiting…