US novelist draws flak over her book claiming 'Rittenhouse killed two Black men'

On Wednesday (January 5), Kara Cooney, a novelist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), became the cynosure of criticism over a chapter in her new book where she "accused" Kyle Rittenhouse of killing two Black men. "Consider 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who used his semi-automatic weapon to kill two Black men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while waging a glorious race war on behalf of his inherited White power," she wrote in her book titled The Good Kings, as per Fox News. Cooney faced a barrage of criticism on social media, with people questioning her fact-checking and research for the book, prompting her to admit her mistake and apologize.

"On p. 341 of THE GOOD KINGS I state that Kyle Rittenhouse shot two Black men when instead he shot two white men," Cooney wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. "That was my mistake, and I apologize. The response has been a hateful stew of ridicule and denial that America has a race problem at all [sic]," Cooney wrote on Twitter. 

The novelist further stated that the harsh and ugly responses she received over the factual mistakes are a sign of White supremacy and misogyny. She also dubbed the Rittenhouse paragraph as a "tiny detail" of the book. 

According to Cooney, if one error in a little-known book about ancient Egypt causes so much uproar, it's better to avoid discussing the greater issue, to prevent seeing our deep-seated preoccupation with patriarchal control. "So yeah, tiny detail of the book with a big mistake about a massive American issue. And that’s on me. But the white supremacy is still a problem. And the misogyny is still a problem," she tweeted. Cooney is said to have made another "historical blunder" while describing the case of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who notably garnered national attention for her protest on a public bus, Fox News reported. 

Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges in the Kenosha shooting case

It is pertinent to mention here that on November 19, 2021, Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges in the Kenosha shooting case after a jury declared him not guilty of all counts. He was cleared of all charges after pleading self-defence in the tragic Kenosha killings that became a watershed in the nation's debate over guns, vigilantism, and racial injustice, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The charges levelled against him included homicide, attempting homicide, and recklessly endangering safety for killing two individuals and wounding a third with an AR-style semi-automatic weapon. The shootings had taken place in the summer of 2020 during a demonstration over police violence against Black people. 

Image: Facebook/@Kara Cooney/AP