November 19, 2021: Kyle Rittenhouse is found not guilty on all counts on the ground of self-defense. This verdict comes more than a year after the August 25, 2020 Kenosha, WI shootings. Rittenhouse, then 17, shot three demonstrators at a rally protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, which had taken place two days prior.

Rittenhouse – a resident of Antioch, IL – drove across the border to Kenosha the night before the protest. In a video from the night of the shooting, Rittenhouse says “Part of my job is to help people. If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle, because I need to protect myself, obviously. But I also have my med kit.”

Fifteen minutes before the shooting, police officers asked him to leave the vehicle dealership that Rittenhouse had claimed he was protecting. Soon after, footage shows Rittenhouse being chased by a group into another dealership’s parking lot. After one of the chasers fired a gun into the air, Rittenhouse turned around and fired four shots, hitting one in the head.

As he ran, people chased him, shouting ‘That’s the shooter!’ Rittenhouse tripped and then fired four shots as three others swarmed him. He shot one in the chest and another, carrying a handgun, fled after being hit in the arm. Two people died by Rittenhouse’s gun that night.

Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges, his attorneys having claimed his actions were in self-defense, but many Americans remain vocal about their opposition to the jury’s verdict. 

Some point out the judge’s decision that those shot by Rittenhouse should not be referred to as ‘victims’ during the trial as evidence of his bias. Others claim that Rittenhouse’s car trip across state borders and later acquisition of an assault-style are proof that he sought out violence at the Kenosha Black Lives Matter protest. 

On that note, the argument has been made that Rittenhouse’s freedom is only due to one thing: his race. Many Americans point out the country’s history of disproportionately punishing and incarcerating Black Americans. The summer of 2020 had already sparked the flame of the Black Lives Matter movement when police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. The Kenosha unrest following the shooting of Jacob Blake, another Black man, continued to galvanize the movement.

Now, the acquittal of Rittenhouse promises to reenergize the push for racial justice, confirming to some that white Americans can get away with crimes Black Americans would face a prison sentence for. The day of the jury’s verdict, Jonathan McClellan, president of the Minnesota Justice Coalition, said that “when these things typically happen, we expect the worst but hope for the best. And today we saw the worst.”

Days after being acquitted, Rittenhouse spoke with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, claimed not to be a white supremicist, and ironically, to be in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. But some remain skeptical. Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Los Angeles’s BLM chapter, stated that “They are a propaganda machine that’s used to make the nonsensical seem to make sense. And so, they want to make Kyle Rittenhouse both the young hero of white supremacy, but also not be a white supremacist…  we see all over his social media, him throwing up white supremacist signs. And people know what it is. It’s very clear what he is and what he’s doing.”

While the position of the racial justice leaders is a common one among the American political left, not all are in agreement. Even within the left-leaning Biden administration, there is some dissent.

When asked about the verdict, President Joe Biden replied by saying “The jury system works, and we have to abide by it.” Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is mixed with Black and South Asian, said “Today’s verdict speaks for itself. I’ve spent a majority of my career working to make our criminal justice system more equitable. It’s clear, there’s still a lot more work to do.” Biden has since elaborated on his position, saying in a statement that “While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.”

While some on the left, like Biden, accept the jury’s decision even if they are upset by it, others promote a more confrontational approach. In a similar fashion to the vice president, they press for more action to change the justice system, claiming that the Rittenhouse verdict is just yet more evidence of the failure of the U.S. justice system to protect Black lives and punish white perpetrators.

Instead of bringing closure to a murder trial, the Rittenhouse verdict has left America more divided than before and with an urgent need to consider how race plays into the justice system.