A UCLA professor who is a self-described “Egyptologist” included a passage in a book she authored claiming Kyle Rittenhouse shot two black men, and when she was harshly criticized for her mistake, apologized but insisted that “America has a race problem,” a “deep-seeded obsession with patriarchal power,” and is plagued by “white supremacy” and “misogyny.”
Professor Kara Cooney tweeted:
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.
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.
— Kara Cooney (@KaraCooney) January 5, 2022
“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.”
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.
— Kara Cooney (@KaraCooney) January 5, 2022
Cooney was heavily criticized on social media, with comments such as:
I completely made up facts to support my fragile and fictitious worldview BUT YOUR REACTION TO THAT LIE IS THE REAL PROBLEM HERE!!!!
Someone who writes a book, doesn’t watch the trial, doesn’t do an investigation then claims “whoops, just a mistake” hopefully will hear from Kyle’s lawyer soon!
I was held to a higher standard than this for papers I wrote in high school. You aren’t a victim here.
If you and your publishers put out a book “mistaking” an easily verifiable detail of a major case from this past year how can you or your publishers be trusted to put out information about ancient history
How much can you really claim to care about this issue when you got such an obvious detail wrong? Did you not watch the case at all? The footage? How can you reconcile your alleged understanding of this problem with your ignorance about such a simple fact?
In December, Rittenhouse told Glenn Beck he wanted to have a “conversation” with President Joe Biden for suggesting that Rittenhouse was a “white supremacist.” He stated, “I would like to sit down with the president and have a conversation with him and tell him the facts of what happened.”
Rittenhouse was referring to a tweet Biden released during his 2020 presidential campaign that contained a video showing Rittenhouse carrying his AR-15 in Kenosha. Biden tweeted of former President Trump, “There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night.”
Rittenhouse later told Tucker Carlson of Fox News, “Mr. President, if I could say one thing to you, I would urge you to go back and watch the trial and understand the facts before you make a statement.” After Carlson interjected, “That’s not a small thing to be called that,” Rittenhouse continued, “No, it’s, it’s actual malice, defaming my character for him to say something like that. It’s actually quite hysterical how nobody can go back and look at the facts of the case. ‘He crossed state lines,’ false. ‘He’s a white supremacist,’ false. None of that is true. And the lies that they can just get away with spreading is just sickening. And it’s a disgrace to this country.”