FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2021
Contact: Juan Ramiro Sarmiento
(785) 760-6567 | JuanRamiro.Sarmiento@younginvincibles.org

An Exemplary Miscarriage of Justice

(Washington, DC) – Today, Kyle Rittenhouse – the 17-year-old Illinois resident who traveled across state lines with a military-style semi-automatic rifle and later shot and killed two men and wounded another during protests over the murder of unarmed Black people by police officers – was acquitted of all charges by a jury in Kenosha, WI. The jury deliberated for 26 hours before siding with the defense.

In response, Kristin McGuire, Executive Director for Young Invincibles issued the following statement.

“We are tired. As I read the headlines and verdict today, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’m in the year 2021, or back in deep south Alabama in the 50s. The exhausting reality of being Black or Brown in America is one of perpetual angst and anxiety. Today’s news is an unsurprising development for a nation forged by centuries of systematic, race-based oppression. I fear this verdict is a step toward the normalization of vigilante “justice” and today’s young people deserve an America where justice is equitably applied. We did not see that today.

The Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial exemplifies the notion that white lives that stand with Black people against injustice jeopardize their protections in a racial hierarchy that for so long has centered white people above non-white Americans.

The system that has justified or ignored the murder of Black people in countless incidents cannot be divorced from its racialized institutional history. This is the same system that in the past prohibited Black defendants from testifying against white people and habitually prioritized the rights of white Americans over those of their Black peers. In this regard, white rights are jeopardized when they stand with Black people in protest of racial injustice. In the same way, white Freedom Riders protesting racial apartheid in the south would be burned alive alongside Black Americans daring to demand equal treatment. All in the preservation of the status quo: racial segregation.

Today, systemic racism persists in our criminal legal system and across our institutions. It is unrelenting. It is unforgiving. It is deliberate. It’s draining.

So deliberate, in fact, that it will swiftly mobilize against people protesting our inherited, racial caste system.

The impact of racism in our country continues to rear its ugly head in the justice system, our education system, and our health care system. We cannot move forward until we address it directly and forge a more equitable society.”