Any way you slice it, America has a unique and terrifying relationship with guns, and the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse last week proves this. The verdict equally shows a peek into a future with more guns, more armed vigilantes, and more lame self-defense excuses.  To Black Americans, particularly, the Rittenhouse verdict also highlights the hypocrisy of the nation's gun culture and self-defense as a get out of jail free card. It takes us back to the death of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black teen shot to death by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was acquitted in the case after claiming self-defense—a strategy most Americans would acknowledge would not be successful should the defendant be Black.  When it comes to hypocrisy, nothing shows this better than the case of Breonna Tayler and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker. When three plain-clothed officers attempted to break down their door, Walker fired a single shot in self-defense. The men, later revealed as police, fired back—killing Taylor and arresting Walker for attempted murder. Read more