Derrick Clifton:

Well, part of the reaction is utter disbelief and in many ways disappointment with the allegations, especially since — and I note this in the piece at NBC THINK — Jussie Smollett has a sizable platform within the community.

He is part of a surge of increased representation and visibility of black LGBT people in entertainment and television within the last few years, and even outside of that has been advocating for HIV awareness, for resources in that regard, and also for support of historically black colleges and universities.

And so, when someone with a platform of this nature ends up wrapped up into a situation where they may have been at the center of an alleged hoax hate crime, people are understandably dismayed and disappointed that one of their heroes may actually be doing a disservice to the community.

So you have folks who feel as though their empathy was misplaced, and that it was taken advantage of. But also the other side of that is that there is this palpable frustration that there's only an attention from some law enforcement and even the public to hate crimes in the community when there is a celebrity factor, or when there is somebody that's high-profile at the center of it.

But, quite often, the situations are going on without any attention, any care. And that's really what's underneath all of this, is, how can we redirect the energy from an alleged hoax to the many other incidents that are happening all around us, even within the last few weeks, even months, surrounding this alleged incident?

There are black trans women who have been killed. And quite often, those are the people who are disproportionately impacted within our — within black and LGBT communities on this issue.