A historian of white power reacts to the Rittenhouse verdict: ‘a bonanza for the far-right’

Kathleen Belew says Rittenhouse's acquittal signals an approval for growing militant vigilantism against racial justice protesters

When Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murdering two men during anti-racism protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week, the verdict was celebrated by far-right politicians and pundits across the US. Several Republican lawmakers offered Rittenhouse an internship and Fox News host Tucker Carlson called him a sweet kid".

Kathleen Belew, a historian of American white power movements and author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, argues that the fact that Rittenhouse's trial is being read as a victory by more mainstream components of the right has the potential to serve as a rallying cry for increased militant vigilantism against US racial justice protesters.