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Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal doesn’t prove what some think it does

Justice system privileges aren’t always black and white

Kristine Hadeed
3 min readNov 19, 2021
Image by Michael Chodyra, Getty Images Pro

On the surface, Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal may seem like evidence of a simple fact that White people get treated well by the justice system and Black people don’t.

But don’t be fooled; the situation is a little more nuanced than that.

How many of you know about Steven Donziger‘s case? For sure far fewer than those who know about Kyle Rittenhouse’s.

There’s a reason why.

A case that media has conveniently ignored

Steve Donziger is a White male and a human rights lawyer. He won a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron oil company for illegal dumping on indigenous land and water. The contamination was so severe that some called it “the Amazon’s Chernobyl.”

In retaliation, Chevron sued Donziger. The judge who oversaw the suit, Lewis A. Kaplan, was a former corporate lawyer with financial interests in Chevron. Conflict of interest much?

But it gets better.

After Donziger appealed a court order that he turn over privileged attorney-client communications to Chevron’s legal team, Judge Kaplan charged him with contempt…

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Kristine Hadeed
Kristine Hadeed

Written by Kristine Hadeed

Critical thinker and non-partisan community organizer advocating for the liberation and dignity of all people.

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