Jussie Smollett is still defending his honor and claiming he really was the victim of a hate crime. Yesterday he snapped at someone who compared him to a Virginia sixth-grader whose story about being attacked by white assailants at school turned out to be a hoax.

In case you missed it, yesterday we learned that a black sixth-grader in Virginia who claimed a group of white boys held her down, called her names, and cut off her hair had actually made up the whole story. As Allahpundit explained, the girl’s story fell apart when surveillance video revealed that neither she nor the boys she identified were in the area of the alleged attack at the time she claimed it happened. The girl’s grandparents apologized for her behavior.

When the story broke yesterday, someone named Derrick Jackson, who NBC identifies as a “self-help social media guru,” posted it on his Instagram page with the caption, “Jussie really is a trendsetter.” That’s a fairly obvious joke but apparently it was enough to get under the skin of Jussie Smollett who offered a statement defending himself.

“With all due respect brother, y’all can clown me all you want but my story has actually never changed and I haven’t lied about a thing,” Smollett said. He continued, “Y’all can continue to be misinformed, internalized sheep, who believe what actual proven liars feed you or you can read the actual docs. Either way, Imma be alright. I know me and what happened. You don’t. So carry on. All love.”

I’m not sure what he’s hoping to achieve here. Are there really a lot of people out there who still believe this story? I don’t think so. As far as I can tell, Jussie Smollett has achieved a kind of racial harmony because no one of any race believes his story.

And there’s a reason for that. Jussie’s story involved a late-night walk to Subway through freezing Chicago streets, white racists in MAGA hats who were such fans of Empire that they could recognize Jussie Smollett in the dark, and a victim who left a noose around his neck (which his attackers had allegedly placed there) for 40 minutes so he could show it to the police. Honestly, if the sixth-grader had told her principal that story, he would have rolled his eyes and told her to stop lying.

I’m really not saying this to be mean, but the sixth-grader’s acting was better too. Seriously, watch the clip of her crying about the attack and compare that to Smollett’s big interview describing his assault. It’s no contest.

Maybe Jussie feels he needs to keep up the public act until the civil lawsuit against him is resolved. After all, it’s not like he has a gig on TV anymore and I’m not sure other shows are going to be eager to hire someone who is best known as a liar and a laughingstock. So he can’t afford to lose that $130,000. But maybe one day he’ll get to the point where the sixth-grader’s family already is and offer an apology.