The world has always been prone to hoaxes. Sorry, but people can be rather naive. Across history, bizarre personalities have tricked others into believing some seriously tall tales. In 1964, a Swedish journalist Åke “Dacke” Axelsson, tried to fool a bunch of art critics and the art community.
Axelsson had a bunch of monkeys paint some paintings. He said the artwork was by a previously unknown artist, Pierre Brassau. Brassau wasn’t real. But the monkeys were. One critic, from the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper, described the artist as having “the delicacy of a ballet dancer.”
There were crazy stories about discovering Hitler’s diary. P. T. Barnum may have concocted one of the greatest hoaxes of all time. Using the head and torso of a small monkey, sewn to the tail of a fish, Barnum told people he’d found the “Feejee Mermaid.”
When he displayed his rather bizarre creature, thousands bought the hoax “hook, line, and sinker.” But sometimes, these little hoaxes cause harm or have the potential to ignite violence. One man has been ordered to pay over $1 billion to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Alex Jones’s conspiracy theory that the shooting was a government hoax has earned him financial consequences. He hurt people. But another recent hoax hasn’t led to any damages, yet. But what one social media user did could have triggered violence across the country.
In September, a strange social media post surfaced threatening violence. The user posted statements proclaiming “wh**e power.” This mystery person threatened to harm black people at the upcoming Lee County Fair in Opelika, Alabama. Opelika police soon opened an investigation.
What they discovered was astonishing. The person, who posted the threats of violence against black people, wasn’t a white person. The Facebook user page, complete with a Confederate battle flag, was created by a black teenager. The hoaxer lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.
He posted, “Are coming to Opelika, Alabama fair to kill every N**RO that we lay eye contact on, so be prepared. WH**E POWER!” Thursday, Lafayette, Louisiana police arrested Pharrell Smith on unrelated charges. Upon release, the 18-year-old black man is expected to be extradited to Alabama.
There, Smith will face a felony charge of making a terroristic threat. What Pharrell Smith did wasn’t an amusing prank. It was a racially motivated hate crime. Hopefully, prosecutors will treat with such intensity. Smith’s hoax could have gotten people killed.
This hateful hoax fuels any unhealthy racial divide in the U.S. America still has a few racially biased people. They are the minority. When someone concocts such a sick hoax as this, they must be held accountable. Otherwise, it undermines sincere efforts to eradicate what true racism still exists.
If these statements came from a white person, that person would be held at the highest level of contempt. They well ought to be. But this black man is no different. Justice must be served. Pharrell Smith should receive a lengthy stay behind bars to contemplate his hideous scam.