What Kyle Rittenhouse's tears reveal about America

Despite last year's demonstrations supporting racial justice and substantive efforts at political reform, the system that devalues Black lives remains largely -- and powerfully -- intact.

Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old on trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for shooting three people and killing two of them, represents the epitome of White privilege in America run amok. Rittenhouse, who has pleaded not guilty to six charges including reckless homicide, intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide, cried during emotional testimony on Wednesday. Anyone watching the proceedings who was unfamiliar with the events that led to this trial would be forgiven for assuming that Rittenhouse was the victim of an unspeakable crime rather than being its accused perpetrator.

His protracted sobs -- and people's telling reactions to them -- spoke volumes about the moment America now finds itself in. Whether or not Rittenhouse is convicted, the perspective he represents -- galvanized by the anger, fear and prejudice of White Americans -- has already achieved its ends: normalizing a kind of racial privilege exposed, but far from extinguished, in the wake of George Floyd's murder last year.