WHITE PRIVILEGE + CULTURE

Kyle Rittenhouse is Innocent Legally but Not Morally, and Not Actually

The jury found him not guilty but we know what he did that summer

Remember, all of this started because a police officer shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times. Thankfully, the 29-year old Black man survived this police encounter, even though the array of bullets left him paralyzed. It’s essential to note that Kyle Rittenhouse became a household name only because of the incident that led up to the initial protest.

The injustice of an officer using his weapon to shoot an unarmed Black man with his back turned shocked the nation. That’s where Kyle Rittenhouse entered the scene. He came to Kenosha with the mission of “protecting” businesses” from protestors. But, let’s keep it real, we know why Rittenhouse really went to Kenosha that night — to confront Black Lives Matter protesters. White conservatives have knighted Rittenhouse as their hero, their great White hope, so to speak. But with heroes like this, who needs antagonists?

“Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, who is white, was arrested at his home in Illinois and charged with six criminal counts, including first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, in connection with the shooting deaths of Mr. Rosenbaum and Mr. Huber and the wounding of the third demonstrator.”

Despite the allegations brought by the prosecutors, the jury found Rittenhosue innocent on all counts today. Through his teary-eyed testimony, he claimed he only shot those three unarmed Black Lives Matter protestors in self-defense, and the nearly all-white jury bought it hook line and sinker. Legally, Kyle Rittenhouse is an innocent man, but like Zimmerman, whom a jury acquitted in the case of Trayvon Martin, he will walk through life with a stain of perceived guilt by the public.

“Guilt” is a legal term, but it is also a moral one too. And regardless of the punishment or lack thereof that the system dishes out to White men, the results are the same — two men lost their lives that night, and that’s a tragedy. They were victims, in the sense that they did not not cause harm, they were harmed. Thus, calling Kyle Rittenhouse “innocent,” is gravely offensive even though it’s factual in the legal sense.

On that summer, August night, Kyle Rittenhouse shot 26-year old Anthony Huber and 36-year old Joseph Rosenbaum, and they died from gunshot wounds. Gaige Grosskreutz, 26-at the time, became the sole survivor. Rittenhouse shot all three unarmed white men using a rifle. Yet, despite their deaths and injuries, judge Schroeder “stated that the men shot by Rittenhouse could not be called “victims” because the term was prejudicial toward the teen. … “The word ‘victim’ is a loaded, loaded word,” Schroeder said. ‘Alleged victim’ is a cousin to it.” I’m sorry, but what type of clown show democracy has this become to where we cannot even refer to people who lost their lives through gun violence as victims? As journalist Joy-Ann Reid tweeted, “in the Rittenhouse case, the 13th juror was the judge.”

Even though Huber and Rosenbaum were White men, they caught flack for being on the wrong side of the debate, in the eyes of White Supremacy. Black Lives Matter protesters came out to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. So, their position on the debate about racial equality in America brought the conflict front and center. That’s why Rittenhouse perceived them as the ones in town, causing trouble. In reality, they were protesting injustice.

Huber’s family released a statement through their lawyer about how they feel about the verdict. “No accountability for the person who murdered our son,” they tweeted after hearing today’s verdict. In despair, they’re trying to make sense of it all, just like us. In the criminal justice system’s eyes, Rittenhouse is innocent, but where is the justice for those who died? To believe the system is righteous is to insinuate that those two unarmed men deserved to die, and that may be legally acceptable in America, but it certainly isn’t moral.

“Some people want to make Rittenhouse a hero; they argue he’s a positive role model for other young people: He saw a problem. He took action. He stood up when the police stood down.” But, the only problem that day was white supremacy, which granted unearned privileges to White men like Rittenhouse, so much that we’ve normalized their dis-attachment to accountability. If the death of two white men doesn’t wake up the liberals in this country about the true threat (white supremacy), then nothing will.

From a layperson’s perspective, innocent means that you did not do the things folks accused you of, and Rittenhouse never denied taking the lives of two men. Rather, he asserted his right to self-defense, and the jury cosigned his perspective. If armed civilians can kill unarmed civilians and claim self-defense, then justice has lost all meaning in this country. Has this nation lost all decency, or did it have any to begin with? You be the judge.

Two unarmed people died that night, and as a Black woman, I’m scared of what Rittenhouse’s “innocence” will mean for protesters in the future. Do we not have the right to assemble peacefully? Because I could have sworn that was part of our First Amendment Right. Or will only White men have that right? One Twitter user tweeted, “white vigilantes aren’t just coming for Black, they’re coming for people who sympathize with Black people.”

Kyle Rittenhouse struck fear into the hearts of Americans who peacefully protest for the preservation of Black lives, and it’s a shame but White folks may think twice before attending the next Black Lives Matter rally in fear of their lives. But that’s the point right, to make White people who do care about Black people afraid to express that in the streets or at the ballot box.

The Department of Justice declined to press charges on the White police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back, and now Rittenhouse is a free man after shooting three people that night in Kenosha. The takeaway from this seems to be that if you are White, then accountability is a mere afterthought.

A few tears, and “I was afraid for my life(s)” later and they can skate out of the courtroom. The news we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived, but it’s not accountability knocking at the front door, as some wantingly expected. Many of us saw this coming, but it’s still disappointing, not just for this individual case but for what it means for the safety of future protests in America.

This trial reminded Americans that White privilege is anything but harmless. While Rittenhouses and Zimmermans of the world getaway, we’re left wondering why we’re even still debating about race and privilege. It’s for us to reimagine this system, to move on to create a system that dishes out justice evenly.

As Colin Kaepernick tweeted, “We just witnessed a system built on white supremacy validate the terrorist acts of a white supremacist. This only further validates the need to abolish our current system. White supremacy cannot be reformed.” At this point, it’s hard to imagine how this current system can ever deliver justice because it was designed to uphold the rights of White men and it continues to work like clockwork.

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