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James Madison University slammed as Insta story claims Kyle Rittenhouse victims were BLACK

The claims were made by junior biophysical chemistry major Daequan Nichols during a takeover on the university's official Instagram

Stories on the official Instagram account of James Madison University bizarrely claimed on Friday, November 19, that the victims who died in August last year after Kyle Rittenhouse fired shots, were Blacks. As per reports, the claims were made by junior biophysical chemistry major Daequan Nichols during a story takeover, but soon it was removed.

Rittenhouse was freed of all charges on Friday, November 19, after a jury decided that he acted in self-defense. He was accused of killing two men — Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26 — and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz, 28, during an unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 25, 2020, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. All the four men, including Rittenhouse, were Whites. The charges he was pressed with were first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, and use of a dangerous weapon.

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Nichols, who uploaded the story on the social media platform, is associated with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter. In the story, he apparently said that the judgment in the Rittenhouse case is a “disgusting reminder of what it’s like to be Black in America.” He also went on to mention the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the killings of Trayvon Martin and Breonna Taylor, which led to massive protests across the US in 2020.

Nichols added in the Instagram story: “All the protesting, everything we went through in 2020, we really would think would make a change, but clearly it doesn’t. We scream Black Lives Matter, but it doesn’t matter enough for these people who are in power — the jury, the judge, anybody — to charge this man with murdering and taking away two beautiful Black lives at the ripe ages of 26 and 36.”

Explaining the social media takeovers, Mary-Hope Vass, university spokesperson and director of communications, said that students were provided with this opportunity so that audiences get to know about student activities and research and for students to interact with the greater community. Vass also said that “takeovers” are a regular thing at the university. But she added, “One of yesterday’s takeovers went into the personal opinion and viewpoints of a student, which are not necessarily reflective of the university.”

The controversial Instagram Stories also went viral on Twitter with many reacting over it and expressing their thoughts. A user sarcastically tweeted, “‘2 beautiful black lives’ lol. Maybe he got confused when reading about the criminal histories of the people Kyle defended himself from and thought they were black.” The second one noted, “Where are these people getting the whole ‘he killed 2 black people’ narrative from? Not only that but to speak on it so confidently wtf.” “Unfortunately social media in particular has produced a generation of people who only read ‘headlines’ not having the attention span or the interest to read an article before they rush to lecture their ‘followers”’,” the third one added.

Tina Ramirez, a human rights advocate, sharing the Instagram Stories, wrote, “This was sent to me by a @JMU alum. It is a now-deleted video from JMU’s Official IG account that not only criticizes Rittenhouse’s innocent verdict, but mischaracterizes the facts of the case, stating that “two beautiful black lives” were killed, which is false. 1/2.”

She added, “JMU is a publicly funded university that is now pushing political propaganda and misinformation from their social media accounts. JMU’s actions are unethical, as Kyle Rittenhouse was found innocent, and dangerous, as the post pushes false info that could lead to violence.”