Posted Nov 20, 2021 by Michael L. Brown

As soon as the “not guilty” verdict was announced in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, I posted the news on Facebook and Twitter, asking readers if they agreed with the decision. The vast majority did agree, as the video evidence and verbal testimony pointed to Rittenhouse acting in self-defense. For others, however, this was another example of “white privilege” or “white supremacy.” And that, quite tragically, will be one of the lasting legacies of this case: it will be used to further inflame racial tensions when this was never really about race.

I too agree with the verdict, although I don’t believe Rittenhouse should have been in Kenosha with a gun. If he wanted to offer medical help or clean up vandalized buildings, that would be one thing. To show up with a gun, especially at such a young age and without adult supervision or explicit permission of the police was, in my opinion, very poor judgment.

But either way, I do not believe that race was the driving issue, nor should it be made into the central issue. Not for a second.

Rittenhouse did not shoot and paralyze Jacob Blake, the black man shot multiple times by police after his former girlfriend called them for help and he did not obey their commands.

Neither of the two men Rittenhouse killed was black, nor was the man he wounded.

The business he chose to protect, named Car Source, was owned by two, brown-skinned brothers, Sahil and Anmol Khindri. And even if they did not ask for his help, it was not a white business that Rittenhouse was protecting, nor were the rioters primarily black.

Unfortunately, as noted by Ben Shapiro, Rittenhouse “was brought to trial because his case became the center of a political firestorm. In September 2020, Joe Biden featured Rittenhouse in an ad decrying then-President Donald Trump’s supposed sympathy for white supremacists. Members of the Left declared that Rittenhouse was a stand-in for American racism, despite the fact that all three of the people Rittenhouse shot were white. Even after the prosecution presented its case — a case so weak that the prosecution’s own witnesses ended up supporting Rittenhouse’s self-defense case — members of the media continued to maintain that an exoneration for Rittenhouse would be yet another stain on America’s racial record.”

And that, to repeat, will be the long-term, tragic legacy of this case, further inflaming racial tensions and mistrust.

What about Rittenhouse’s alleged connection to the white racist Proud Boys? According to CNN, “There was no evidence presented at trial about this.”

More specifically, as to Rittenhouse being photographed in a bar with members of the Proud Boys, “Prosecutors argued that some of the people he posed with were in the ‘highest echelons’ of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys.

“The defense argued there was no evidence Rittenhouse knew who they were. The judge agreed.”

But even if Rittenhouse knew exactly who they were – although, to repeat, there is no concrete evidence that he did – that doesn’t mean that the shootings were related to white supremacy.

And if you argue that: 1) Rittenhouse had no legal right to buy his gun (his friend Dominick Black, “testified he had previously purchased an AR-15 firearm for Rittenhouse in Wisconsin” because Rittenhouse was too young to buy it); 2) Rittenhouse lied about being a trained EMT; and 3) Rittenhouse was a self-appointed vigilante who never should have been in Kenosha, none of this points directly to white supremacy and white privilege at all. (And what shall we say of armed, black vigilante militias that have been emerging in recent years?)

Some might say, “Well, it was white privilege that got him acquitted of all charges. It would have been different if a black man had been on trial.”

But that is only speculation (although I agree that, in general, there is evidence of blacks receiving harsher sentences than whites when committing similar crimes). And where was that white privilege in the trial of Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd? The jury found that white policeman guilty of second-degree murder.

Let's also not forget that Rittenhouse was branded a white supremacist murderer before the trial ever took place. That is the real issue.

Writing for MSNBC, Zeeshan Aleem noted that, for some, “the Rittenhouse verdict easily reads like a referendum on the nation’s ongoing clashes over the state of racism in American life: not just an expression of mercy toward Rittenhouse, but white vigilantism.”

Yet that was not the viewpoint he wanted to pursue, writing instead, “But I think that’s probably not the best way to look at it. Instead, this case was both smaller and bigger: It was decided based on a narrow question of self-defense under a permissive law, not Rittenhouse’s ideological predilections. At the same time, Rittenhouse’s series of encounters was only possible in a society with truly harrowing social maladies, including a pathological obsession with guns and a rising culture of right-wing militias. Did Rittenhouse set out to shoot people that night? That question is unanswerable. But the whole situation would never have emerged anywhere but in a deeply ill society.”

That, in my view, is where our discussion should focus, namely, on our “deeply ill society.” And, whether or not you agree with Aleem’s wider perspectives, the issues he raises are certainly issues we need to discuss.

But what we cannot do is allow others to divide us even more deeply over race as a result of the Rittenhouse verdict. Instead, as fellow Americans of all backgrounds and colors, let’s come together to help heal America’s wounds.

Are you with me?

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Comments

OT posted a comment · Nov 28, 2021
smetro I agree, well said.
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smetro posted a comment · Nov 27, 2021
What bothers me most about virtually all of this is that the media, our current government, led mostly by the Democratic Party, refuse to look at not only the rise but the overtaking of several municipalities, institutions, incuding the media, many of our academic institutions by the radical LEFT. Their radical elements have not only precipitated most of the violence, but has put all of us on edge for fear of what THEY might do next! Case in point was the question after the Rittenhouse verdict, what violence from the LEFT would we see? Immediately came our answer in the form of a madman with no regard for any life plowing through (a mostly white, please note) crowd celebrating in a pre-Christmas parade, of all things? Can we continue to allow this? Shouldn't some kind of reasonable effort be made to curb, eliminate violence from either side? Most important, when will our media, even government officials STOP encouraging violence that comes from the terrorist of their choice -- and be able to get away with it!?
user profile
smetro posted a comment · Nov 27, 2021
What bothers me most about virtually all of this is that the media, our current government, led mostly by the Democratic Party, refuse to look at not only the rise but the overtaking of several municipalities, institutions, incuding the media, many of our academic institutions by the radical LEFT. Their radical elements have not only precipitated most of the violence, but has put all of us on edge for fear of what THEY might do next! Case in point was the question after the Rittenhouse verdict, what violence from the LEFT would we see? Immediately came our answer in the form of a madman with no regard for any life plowing through (a mostly white, please note) crowd celebrating in a pre-Christmas parade, of all things? Can we continue to allow this? Shouldn't some kind of reasonable effort be made to curb, eliminate violence from either side? Most important, when will our media, even government officials STOP encouraging violence that comes from the terrorist of their choice -- and be able to get away with it!?
user profile
smetro posted a comment · Nov 27, 2021
What bothers me most about virtually all of this is that the media, our current government, led mostly by the Democratic Party, refuse to look at not only the rise but the overtaking of several municipalities, institutions, incuding the media, many of our academic institutions by the radical LEFT. Their radical elements have not only precipitated most of the violence, but has put all of us on edge for fear of what THEY might do next! Case in point was the question after the Rittenhouse verdict, what violence from the LEFT would we see? Immediately came our answer in the form of a madman with no regard for any life plowing through (a mostly white, please note) crowd celebrating in a pre-Christmas parade, of all things? Can we continue to allow this? Shouldn't some kind of reasonable effort be made to curb, eliminate violence from either side? Most important, when will our media, even government officials STOP encouraging violence that comes from the terrorist of their choice -- and be able to get away with it!?
user profile
smetro posted a comment · Nov 27, 2021
What bother me most about virtually all of this is that the media, our current government, led mostly by the Democratic Party, refuse to look at not only the rise but the overtaking of several municipalities, institutions, incuding the media, many of our academic institutions by the radical LEFT. Their radical elements have not only precipitated most of the violence, but has put all of us on edge for fear of what THEY might do next! Case in point was the question after the Rittenhouse verdict, what violence from the LEFT would we see? Immediately came our answer in the form of a madman with no regard for any life plowing through (a mostly white, please note) crowd celebrating in a pre-Christmas parade, of all things? Can we continue to allow this? Shouldn't some kind of reasonable effort be made to curb, eliminate violence from either side? Most important, when will our media, even government officials STOP encouraging violence that comes from the terrorist of their choice -- and be able to get away with it!?
user profile
smetro posted a comment · Nov 27, 2021
What bother me most about virtually all of this is that the media, our current government, led mostly by the Democratic Party, refuse to look at not only the rise but the overtaking of several municipalities, institutions, incuding the media, many of our academic institutions by the radical LEFT. Their radical elements have not only precipitated most of the violence, but has put all of us on edge for fear of what THEY might do next! Case in point was the question after the Rittenhouse verdict, what violence from the LEFT would we see? Immediately came our answer in the form of a madman with no regard for any life plowing through (a mostly white, please note) crowd celebrating in a pre-Christmas parade, of all things? Can we continue to allow this? Shouldn't some kind of reasonable effort be made to curb, eliminate violence from either side? Most important, when will our media, even government officials STOP encouraging violence that comes from the terrorist of their choice -- and be able to get away with it!?
user profile
smetro posted a comment · Nov 27, 2021
What bother me most about virtually all of this is that the media, our current government, led mostly by the Democratic Party, refuse to look at not only the rise but the overtaking of several municipalities, institutions, incuding the media, many of our academic institutions by the radical LEFT. Their radical elements have not only precipitated most of the violence, but has put all of us on edge for fear of what THEY might do next! Case in point was the question after the Rittenhouse verdict, what violence from the LEFT would we see? Immediately came our answer in the form of a madman with no regard for any life plowing through (a mostly white, please note) crowd celebrating in a pre-Christmas parade, of all things? Can we continue to allow this? Shouldn't some kind of reasonable effort be made to curb, eliminate violence from either side? Most important, when will our media, even government officials STOP encouraging violence that comes from the terrorist of their choice -- and be able to get away with it!?
user profile
smetro posted a comment · Nov 27, 2021
What bother me most about virtually all of this is that the media, our current government, led mostly by the Democratic Party, refuse to look at not only the rise but the overtaking of several municipalities, institutions, incuding the media, many of our academic institutions by the radical LEFT. Their radical elements have not only precipitated most of the violence, but has put all of us on edge for fear of what THEY might do next! Case in point was the question after the Rittenhouse verdict, what violence from the LEFT would we see? Immediately came our answer in the form of a madman with no regard for any life plowing through (a mostly white, please note) crowd celebrating in a pre-Christmas parade, of all things? Can we continue to allow this? Shouldn't some kind of reasonable effort be made to curb, eliminate violence from either side? Most important, when will our media, even government officials STOP encouraging violence that comes from the terrorist of their choice -- and be able to get away with it!?
OT posted a comment · Nov 21, 2021
Dr Brown writes : “If I’m going to address controversial issues or take controversial stands, the disagreements and counterattacks are sure to come.”
OT posted a comment · Nov 21, 2021
S Johnson : How is it that this info is out there , but it seems suppressed, denied. Sited facts! ___________________________ New Pfizer drug and ivermectin https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ufy2AweXRkc
OT posted a comment · Nov 20, 2021
Skwh310 your only here to spew your cheeky (bs.) Your purpose is transparent! What you write is Not funny, it only benefits your puffed up self and like minded ilk. Your here because ASK.Drbrown is spot on. The truth and perspective that he shares about activism irritates you. you have to counter it. You of all people should know that the truth from the Bible that that is shared here , Gods word does not return void.
OT posted a comment · Nov 20, 2021
Heady to Contemplate “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Matthew 12:26 God gave you a keen “bs”meter but it fails to detect your own BS ‘sfkh310’ “bestowed upon me by my blessed Creator is an outstanding BS radar.” You deep down are misguided. influenced not by your creator I’m afraid. What you posted was a lie out of the libelous transcripts of cnn/msnbc .
czarpaul posted a comment · Nov 20, 2021
When Aleem wishes to talk about the violence and militias and obsessions of the left as well we can talk to him. I'm fine talking about Christian and conservative short comings but if that talk doesn't include the other sides short comings it is a pointless discussion. We are polarized until both sides can talk without insulting each other or accusing each other incorrectly nothing changes.
Swkh310 posted a comment · Nov 20, 2021
So much for our Constitutional right to peaceful protest. The only small consolation is that the life of this particular little murderous, woman-beating vigilante will be forever ruined.