“Jussie Smollett Ran So Carlee Russell Could Fly”: Weaponizing Community Care and Taking Advantage of Human Emotion

“The one time ppl care about a Black woman’s safety and it’s a scam?!” — my friend, via text

The saddest thing, for me, about the Carlee Russell situation is not only the fact that people actually rallied around to help find a young Black woman, especially in the wake of the resources devoted to the Oceangate search, and not just how it makes it harder to get people to believe us when we say that Black, Brown and Indigenous people are missing, but the fact that public concern and human emotion have been once again weaponized.

It strangely reminded me of the time I went to Jamaica and was hit on by one of the workers at the hotel who was vying…