January 1, Nat Geo Author Incorrectly Writes Rittenhouse Killed ‘Two Black Men’ in New Book

In a new book published by National Geographic Press, Egyptologist Kara Cooney falsely claimed that Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed “two Black men in Kenosha, Wisconsin.”

In The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World, Cooney writes: “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.”

The passage gained attention after Kara McKinney, host of Tipping Point on One America News Network (OANN), shared the error on Twitter.

Cooney responded to McKinney’s tweet, acknowledging her “mistake.”

“Yes. This was my mistake. And [I] caught it too late for printing. Apologies. I stand by the sentiment of white supremacy, however,” the author wrote.

Cooney put out a separate statement of apology, but she appeared to minimize the gravity of publishing a false statement.

“On p. 341 of THE GOOD KINGS I state that Kyle Rittenhouse shot two Black men when instead he shot two white men. 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,” Cooney wrote.

“If one mistake in a little known book about ancient Egypt elicits this much howling, it is to avoid discussing our larger problem, to avoid seeing our deep-seeded obsession with patriarchal power,” she continued.

“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.”

Rittenhouse shot three White men during the unrest in Kenosha during a Black Lives Matter rally. In November, a jury acquitted Rittenhouse of murder charges, finding that he acted in self-defense. Yet, multiple members of the media have made the same erroneous claim.

After his acquittal, The Independent published that Rittenhouse was a “teenager who shot three Black men with [a] rifle].”

Source:

National Geographic author falsely claims Kyle Rittenhouse killed ‘two black men’