I have a hard time figuring out how this verdict is about racism. But perennial race-baiter Leonard Pitts, Jr, commentator for the Miami Herald, straightened me out. He preempted my thinking with this jewel:
"There will be those who don’t understand why race is invoked here. Rittenhouse, after all, was a white boy who shot three white men.
"But those men lost whiteness the moment they joined that protest. No, that doesn’t mean they became dark of skin or curly of hair. What it does mean is that to be a white person who stands up for African-American lives is to place yourself in opposition to the great body of whiteness and privilege by which this country is driven."
So beware. You lose your white privilege the moment you take the side of any non-white person, no matter the circumstances.
"There will be those who don’t understand why race is invoked here. Rittenhouse, after all, was a white boy who shot three white men.
"But those men lost whiteness the moment they joined that protest. No, that doesn’t mean they became dark of skin or curly of hair. What it does mean is that to be a white person who stands up for African-American lives is to place yourself in opposition to the great body of whiteness and privilege by which this country is driven."
So beware. You lose your white privilege the moment you take the side of any non-white person, no matter the circumstances.