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The ambitious undertaking in the traveling exhibition Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem to summarize the prodigious achievements of artists of African descent over the last century astounds in its impressive displays.

There is the larger-than-life oil canvas portrait of Kevin the Kiteman, a 2016 work by Jordan Casteel, set against a rich, lushly textured representation of a Harlem street that evokes joyful contentment. Chakaia Bookers 1995 sculpture of rubber tires and metal, Repugnant Rapunzel (Let Down Your Hair), challenges the viewer to contemplate the moral and ethical implications of an industry that historically has exploited the labor of young African people. Kerry James Marshalls 1986 Silence is Golden, a work of acrylic on panel, riffs convincingly on the themes of Ralph Ellisons 1952 novel Invisible Man. The stunning shimmering effect of Mickalene Thomas Panthera, a 2002 work of a panther rendered in rhinestones on acrylic and a birch panel, resonates as an expression of the strength and beauty of the Black woman. Black Righteous Space by Hank Willis Thomas is a 2012 video installation, which immerses the viewer in a visceral historical counterpoint incorporating elements ranging from the Confederate flags stars and bars to the Pan-African tricolor flag of black, red and green, along with the voices of black cultural leaders.

At the center of the installation is a microphone for exhibition visitors to answer the call and voice their own response. Kehinde Wiley, who was commissioned in 2018 to create the official portrait of former President Barack Obama, references an 18th-century French tapestry to create his own Jacquard tapestry with The Gypsy Fortune-Teller. Wiley, of course, is well known for depicting subjects in contemporary outfits and fashion, who historically have been excluded from representations in the elaborate, ornate backgrounds of classic art media and aesthetics.

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is the fifth of six U.S. destinations to host the traveling exhibition, thanks to the efforts of the American Federation of Arts and the Studio Museum in Harlem. The exhibition will be at the UMFA through April 10. UMFA and the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Massachusetts, are the only two college-affiliated institutions in the traveling tour. UMFAs presentation of the exhibition also is supported by the universitys Black Cultural Center.

The Studio Museum is currently closed to the public as construction proceeds on its new home in Harlem. The museums previous homes have been in a second story loft and a 100-year-old building that housed variously a bank and a furniture store. Its new home will be the first facilities designed for the institutions specific mission and needs, since it opened in 1968. The Studio Museums new home, designed by architect David Adjaye, will be located on Harlems most iconic thoroughfare: West 125th Street. Choi, in an interview with The Utah Review, says that as construction continues, were deepening our roots and partnerships in the Harlem community as we think about how we will broaden our programming, education and engagement.

With 100 works from nearly 80 artists dating to the 1920s, Black Refractions is a magnificent and generous sampling of the Studio Museums expansive collections representing not just acquisitions but also works of many artists who have developed their creative expression through artist residencies at the institution. The residencies have been instrumental to the museums development since its earliest days.

For pandemic-weary individuals who might be thirsting to travel to iconic institutions in the nations art landscape, Black Refractions truly brings the experience handily to the doorstep for UMFA patrons, students, artists, teachers and art enthusiasts. Take, for example, Glenn Ligons 2007 work of PVC and neon, which had graced the Studio Museums lobby up until its closing for construction of its new facilities. Give us a Poem (Palindrome #2) is an homage to Muhammad Alis famous response to a students request for a poem during a 1975 Harvard University appearance. That poem was me, we, now preserved in flashing neon lights as a wonderfully relevant signal to guide the viewers journey through the Black Refractions exhibition.

The traveling exhibition was curated by Connie Choi, the Studio Museums associate curator, who worked with UMFAs Whitney Tassie, a senior curator and curator of the museums contemporary and modern art collections. Rather than organize the works in galleries by chronology or media, Choi wisely anchored the exhibition on multidimensional perspectives that command the viewers attention to consider the deeper implications and themes of artists of African descent as adding to and broadening the history of the American art experience. The narrative and aesthetic emphases on display dramatically pinpoint what it means in fulfilling the expectations and elucidating results of diversity and inclusion.

Perhaps the best way to take in the exhibition is to first stand at the entrance of a section of gallery space and scan it in its entirety to appreciate the generous scope of the works being shown. Then, the viewer should take the time to absorb and engage with specific works in each space. An excellent feature that every exhibition visitor should check out is the set of audio responses to specific works presented throughout the galleries, as recorded by various Black leaders, creative producers and professionals in the local community.

The themes emerge in layers. There are works, for example, that reframe stereotypes and empower anew the subjects of the piece not just in gender identity but also in terms of class, history and sexuality. One fascinating area of distinction concerns abstract and representational expressions. Forms, media and materials were not always being explored solely for the purposes of skill and technique but the abstract works also could address the same social, political and cultural critiques and concerns that animate the inspirations behind some of the exhibitions representational works.

In fact, the title of this current exhibition reflects upon the legacy of the Studio Museums founding and in part some of the controversy and negative feedback that arose during the institutions first solo show. For that first exhibition Electronic Refractions II, the museum selected Tom Lloyd, an African-American sculptor who worked in light. The Queens native already had established a solid, visible reputation for his abstract electronic constructions of aluminum, lightbulbs and plastics laminate. However, the Studio Museums opening with the Lloyd show left some in the Harlem community disappointed because they had hoped for work that was specifically representational and relevant to the contemporary voice during the most dramatic, consequential moments of protest and calls for social justice of the time.

One of Lloyds works was Moussakoo, a configuration of animated colored lights that have been programmed in diamond-shaped sections and can be arranged in various patterns. The effect is like watching the urban landscape dynamism in terms of the citys nightlife and business activity, jazz and other musical nightclubs, traffic signals and marquees of a citys theaters. The Studio Museum acquired the work in 1996 after Lloyds death but three of the four original motors for its programming were lost prior to then. Meanwhile, William T. Williamss 1969 screen prints are compelling additions to the abstract works featured in the show. Evocative of geometric images important in the artists life (the urban vibe as well as the craft excellence of his grandmothers quilts), the prints were part of Williamss Diamond-in-the-Box motif series, where he placed a diamond shape in a rectangle, which then is refracted and cut through with straight and curved bands of color.

In representational works, the shows curatorial objectives raise other fruitful areas that demand more than passive viewing for the arts beauty of form, color, media and technique. Artists reposition how progress and societal advancement should be defined for the benefit and impact of the Black community and what would be the real possibilities of sincere efforts for diversity and inclusion that involve comprehending the multifaceted dimensions of the Black experience in the general American society as well as their own neighborhoods. Marshalls Silence in Golden is one example.

Another is a work from Wileys early period when he was an artist in residence at the Studio Museum at the turn of the millennium. His oil canvas painting from 2001, Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence), already suggests the well-developed focus of his later works, which would be acclaimed and acquired by major museums. The mans hair becomes the decorative motif and backdrop in Wileys signature interpretation of the portraiture style, as the hair twists and extends across the entire canvas. Meanwhile, the figure commands a larger-than-proportional space in the paintings composition. Likewise, there are more than a few works in Black Refractions that speak expansively to what encompasses Harlem as a community, a theme integral to the Studio Museums own position as a nexus for artists of African descent and as a cultural, entrepreneurial anchor in Harlem.

Indeed, the artist residencies at the Studio Museum have become effective launch pads for the careers of many participants who have used their opportunities to experiment, test and prove their expressive capacities in the visual arts. One significant epiphany in assessing the impact of the residency program at the Studio Museum is how so many artists have astutely appropriated elements of modernism and reinvigorated aspects of portraiture, for example, and other representational styles, mainly because they speak so clearly to the sociopolitical and sociocultural relevance at the current time. So many pieces in the exhibition capture the essential subtle balance of timeliness and timelessness that makes the art as transcendent as it is transformative in perspective. Casteel, for instance, had no formal art training when she entered Yale Universitys master of fine arts, with a predominating interest in portraiture. When a jury acquitted George Zimmerman in 2013 for the murder of Trayvon Martin, the news inspired her to adapt portraiture to telling stories of Black men that rebuke racist stereotypes. Moving to Harlem in 2015 to start her residency at the Studio Museum, Casteel said in an interview that Harlem was the only place [in New York] Ive ever felt at ease. There she met street vendors and neighborhood residents such as the kiteman, who is featured in the large portrait included in Black Refractions.

Casteels predecessors in the residency program also had set their own bars for challenging the conventions and traditions that have been part of the usual art history canon. Thomas, the artist who created Panthera, also went to Yale and developed a style that blends classical elements with pop culture aspects in portraying Black women and Black feminism. This includes a commissioned portrait of singer and songwriter Solange Knowles. In a Smithsonian magazine interview, Thomas said, Whats happening in art and history right now is the validation and agency of the black female body. We do not need permission to be present. Incidentally, she also was the subject in a portrait by Wiley.

William T. Williams, whose prints are featured in the show, conceived the Studio Museums residency program, which includes studio space, a stipend and an exhibition. Choi says the 11-month program allows artists coming out of schools with their college degrees to experiment and make work they have never made before. The open studios are integral to the museums programs and the residencies introduce artists to many avenues in the art world understanding how museums are run, making connections with private collectors and galleries, organizing shows and situating themselves as they see fit in the larger art world.

Many of the alumni in the program, as already noted, enjoy impressive careers including artists whose works are not featured in this traveling show. Wileys traveling exhibition A New Republic was seen in seven major museums and received tremendous reviews. A 2012 mixed-media painting by Njideka Akunyili Crosby (The Beautyful Ones, depicting the artists older sister) commanded a $3.1 million bid at a Christies auction in 2017.

UMFAs hours are Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the first hour each day reserved for seniors and high-risk individuals. Gallery capacity is limited and visitors are required to reserve tickets in advance, including for free first Wednesdays and third Saturdays. Visitors are also required to wear face masks and to maintain social distance from other household groups in the galleries.

Works from Black Refractionswill be on view not only in the museums first-floor temporary exhibition galleries but also on the Highlights Wall in the museums lobby and in second-floor galleries devoted to modern and contemporary art. A new installation of UMFA contemporary works also focuses on racial and gender inequities.

UMFA is offering various events connected to the exhibition, with advanced tickets required. As part of the museums Sight and Sound Series, a free March 3 event, beginning at 6 p.m., will feature DJ Amir Jackson from Ogden, Utah, who will present several generations of soul, jazz and other musical styles, as inspired by works in the exhibition. A two-part ACME session on March 25 and March 27 will include the screening of Charles O. Andersons critically acclaimed dance theater project(Re)current Unresta meditation on the American Dream and Black nihilism, with Anderson and dance artist Alexandra Barbier leading the March 27 followup workshop.

Major support forBlack Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlemis provided by Art Bridges. Sponsorship for the national tour provided in part by PURE. Support for the accompanying publication provided by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

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UMFA presents magnificent, generous traveling exhibition Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, covering century of...

I didnt used to be a political person.

Ten years ago, as an undergraduate in college, I idolized the author Anne Lamott for her writing about spirituality. I bristled, however, any time she veered into politics on Twitter, which was often.

Brennan poses with Anne Lamott's author photo on the back of a copy ofBird by Bird.

I clicked unfollow when she called former president George W. Bush, a man who committed war crimes, a war criminal.

Its not polite, I remember telling somebody, to be so angry, so critical its abrasive. Shes alienating half of her audience. Cant she just stick to writing about Jesus and leave the politics to, I dont know, the politicians?

Where had I learned to talk like this? I was attending a tiny Christian college surrounded by Ohio cornfields, learning the Bible from white men who believed the first sin was a political one. The governor of Eden said, This is the rule: Dont touch the apple. Its not up for discussion, and the governed said, Why not?

If Eves sin was in challenging and eventually defying the policy God established, then best to be unlike her and obey whatever rules the church and government put in place. Better to not be a questioner, disrupter or unity wrecker.

Better to avoid calling people war criminals, if you can help it.

Ive since given up that way of thinking. It didnt happen instantaneously, but I can trace the shift in my beliefs back to 2013, when Id met a friend for breakfast and weak diner coffee. We, along with the rest of the country, had just learned that a jury had acquitted George Zimmerman of murdering Trayvon Martin. My friend was Black, and we couldnt not talk about it.

I tried to come up with something diplomatic and apolitical to say about Zimmerman, to try to use words from the Bible to explain what happened, when my friend shook her head and said, Lyndsey, you dont get it.

And I didnt.

I knew vaguely that sin and evil were responsible for the wrongs in the world but had no words to describe the sinful social realities like racial profiling and stand-your-ground laws that brought about Martins death.

I could tell you why the United States was a great Christian nation but couldnt tell you the specificpoliciesthe government enacted to hurt its non-white citizens, many of whom were Christians.

I didnt know the history of civil rights in the United States, and I had no idea what went into organizing a protest, but I could tell you what a Christ-like one would look like.

I prided myself on knowing nothing but the Bible, and I now saw the irresponsibility of it: my friend was sitting here on the verge of tears, and the best I could do was rattle off some words translated from a language I didnt speak, written by a man I didnt know in a political situation I didnt understand more than 2,000 years ago.

It had been easy to call politics irrelevant when they didnt negatively affect me. But the uncomfortable truth Id been avoiding is that politics doesaffect someone. And if I wanted to live in a country where those someones had the same rights and privileges I had, I couldnt demand that my comfort take priority over the physical safety of the Black community anymore.

We need to see ... reality with clear eyes, because nothing has held back America more than its denial, said author Ibram X. Kendi, writing that the first step in eliminating a problem like white supremacy is owning up to it. The carnage has no chance of stopping until the denial stops.

I have an early memory of me in my purest form. Im six, my brother is four, and were outside playing with the neighbor kids. I have buck teeth and choppy bangs that wont lay flat. Two cool eight-year-olds who live a few blocks over ride by on their bikes, point at the Velcro on my brothers shoes and laugh in an unkind way that makes him stare at the ground, embarrassed.

I love that this sets the blood in my little body to boil. I bark at them in my six-year-old voice, using six-year-old words to tell them, essentially, to fuck off. As I watch them speed away on their bikes, I understand the power of my voice for the first time.

I think now, this is the job of a journalist in its purest form: to point at the people who are hurting others and bark at them to stop. To join the chorus of voices acknowledging and naming the politics at play in the world, even when others call us abrasive and click unfollow.

To raise hell in hopes of arriving at something like heaven.

I think Anne Lamott would agree.

Lyndsey Brennan is an opinion writer. Contact her at lbrenna7@kent.edu.

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OPINION: Leave politics out of this? No thanks. - Kent Wired

(The Center Square) The Florida Legislative Black Caucus Tuesday unveiled a 16-bill package of fair and just policing and criminal justice reform measures that seek to reimagine law enforcement.

When you look at the bills being rolled out right now, theres one thing thats very clear: No one is pushing to defund the police, Democratic House Co-Leader Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach, said of the 29-member caucuss proposals.

The bills address Floridas Stand Your Ground law, no-knock warrants, police militarization and qualified immunity; seek to establish a minimum arrest age of 10 and a state police misconduct registry; mandate body cameras be worn by all officers, set a minimum standard for police training and prohibit peremptory challenges to strike prospective jurors in criminal trials.

For many of us, the reality is we live in two Americas, two Floridas, said House Minority Co-leader Bobby DuBose, D-Fort Lauderdale, at a Capitol news conference alongside 10 other caucus members.

One Florida has families telling their kids to trust and look for the police when theyre in trouble, DuBose continued. The other Florida has communities that are fearful of law enforcement officers.

With Democrats outnumbered in the House, 72-48, and 24-16 in the Senate and the Legislatures GOP leadership fast-tracking an anti-mob bill cracking down on protests it would appear the package is DOA.

Not so, said Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Orlando, noting many of the bills include input from House Republicans and law enforcement agencies.

We were able to take a collaborative approach and make sure all voices and input are included, she said, launching a #HearTheBills campaign. So yes, I am optimistic some of this legislation will move and once it moves, well define that as a success.

One measure, which Republican leaders are certain to oppose, nevertheless has been assigned to three panels and awaits hearings. Whether it gets one, never mind the three necessary to make it to a floor vote, is uncertain.

House Bill 6035, filed by Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville, would end stand your ground defenses by deleting a provision allowing the use or threatened use of deadly force to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

To this day, the murder of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman haunts the African American community, Hinson said. We have seen throughout history various laws and legal principles enacted to preserve the status quo of white supremacy. Stand your ground is no different. Its a long past time for Florida to go in a new direction.

HB 6035 was filed Jan. 19. The other proposals in the Florida Legislative Black Caucuss package were introduced between Feb. 3-9 and have not been assigned committees. They include:

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Florida Black Caucus calls on Republicans to #HearTheBills in policing reform package - MDJOnline.com

Representative Burgess Owens (R-UT), a retired safety for the New York Jets, made some remarks during his first day on the House Judiciary Committee that would make anyone outside of the Trump Klan cringe.

He argued that the pledge of allegiance should be recited at the start of each session, adding that the American flag is the best thing in the history of mankind. We have guys making $50 million today, to play any position they want to, but wont stand for the flag because they are taught by adults to not love our nation, he said. Its not about words, its about actions. 15 seconds to show our kids that were adults. That we can agree to disagree. That we love our country enough to at least stand and represent our flag.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) fired back at Owens, questioning if he really believed everything that he was saying. Jeffries said that if we can all agree to disagree, then why did he vote against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election? If the results stated that Biden was clearly the winner, why overturn the elections? Jeffries also questioned Owens for supporting the January 6 insurrection that left six people dead, including a U.S. Capitol police officer.

If this country is as great as Owens believes it to be, why did Americans feel the need to invoke violence on members of Congress who were just doing their jobs? Why try to overthrow the government simply because they didnt get their way? The American people voted, and they voted for President Joe Biden to lead this nation. Whether you agree with that or not, you have to accept it. Owens and the rest of Trumps followers, however, just couldnt do that. Owens is a part of the problem, and hold some of the blame for why this county is divided. Thank goodness Owenss proposal to say the pledge of allegiance at the start of each session was quickly shot down.

In 2020, Trump supporters, including Black MAGA believers, made it clear that they believed anyone who protested the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in the middle of a pandemic was out of their minds. They couldnt see that for years, Black America was tired of being forced to watch unarmed African Americans die at the hands of former and current police officers without facing justice.

Ever since George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin in 2013, many Black Americans have been angry, heartbroken and frustrated. Last year, protesters sought change and demanded police reform across the nation.

Protesting police brutality is somehow over the top in the eyes of critics, but those same critics turned around and were able to commit and/or excuse a heinous crime at the Capitol, one that couldve resulted in the deaths of lawmakers. All of this was done in the name of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Owens tried to lecture everyone during the hearing about why America is better than it was in the 1960s, and said that everyone should want to say the pledge of allegiance. He said we now see Black police officers, Black mayors, you know as we have more and more freedom to achieve our dreams Owens apparently fails to recognize that more representation in office means does not mean that the countrys racist systems have been repaired. Someone needs to tell Owens that it doesnt work that way.

For eight years this country had Barack Obama, its first Black president, but we continued to witness Black people killed at an alarming rate by police nationwide. Having Black representation isnt enough. Real policy change needs to be implemented in order to undo damages created centuries ago.

Its unfortunate that folks like Owens make it hard for the Black community to unite. They are somehow blinded to the realities that Black people face every day. People like Owens constantly find ways to diminish those realities based on their own unique, personal experiences. Until real change is made, why would anyone want to stand and pledge allegiance to a flag representing a country that doesnt value their lives?

The saddest part is that Owens is in a position to change policies and to ultimately help BIPOC thrive. If people like Owens continue to exist, those fighting for change on behalf of Black lives will continue to face resistance from naysayers. Even worse, Owenss statements will provide fuel for anyone who is actively fighting against true racial equity in the United States. They dont understand that, although Owens is Black, he doesnt speak for Black people. Instead, he is a tool for sewing division and for justifying racism. His allegiance isnt just to the flag. Its also to the corrupt system that birthed and brainwashed him.

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Rep. Burgess Owens Lives in a Warped Reality - Essence

On Tuesday, prosecutors revealed that they had lost track of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old Illinois resident accused of killing two people at anti-racist protests in Wisconsin last August.

Rittenhouse, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of homicide and a felony count of attempted homicide, was seen recently partying with Proud Boys and flashing White power hand signs while out on bail. His legal team now says he is in a "safe house" after receiving death threats and that they need to keep his location secret. In the meantime, he has become a folk hero in some conservative circles, with his name appearing on T-shirts declaring "Rittenhouse did nothing wrong." Right-wing activists have raised more than $2 million in donations for a legal-defense fund.

The glorification of Rittenhouse, who apparently believed himself to be in Kenosha as part of a militia and whose lawyers have said was acting in self-defense, is part of a rising cult of the vigilante, one that has found an eager following in the past five years.

Former President Donald Trump helped fuel that rise: he personally suggested Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense, and his Department of Homeland Security reportedly sent around an internal memo directing federal officials how to respond to any questions about Rittenhouse. Trump also welcomed other vigilantes into his circle, giving a prime speaking slot at the Republican convention to Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis couple facing charges (to which they pleaded not guilty) for brandishing guns at protesters who walked down the private street in front of their house.

The embrace of these armed suspects might seem to contradict the right's "law and order" message. But vigilante violence has often been part of law enforcement in the United States, a complement to state power rather than a threat to it. Both have been required to uphold America's racial order, and both will need to be radically re-imagined -- or dismantled -- if the country is to have a fair and equitable justice system.

Though we tend to think that the state has a monopoly on legal violence, that has seldom been the case. White vigilantes have long acted as an extension of state violence against Black people and other people of color, and their allies, often with the tacit approval of police, prosecutors, and juries in a spectrum of legal and illegal acts that together create the political idea of "law and order" that has been the backbone of right-wing politics for more than 50 years.

It's easy to caricature this relationship between law enforcement and vigilantism as a feature of the Jim Crow South, when the Ku Klux Klan worked with local sheriffs to attack Black people and their White Republican allies who seemed to imperil the social and political order of the White South. But Klan violence persisted after Jim Crow, and vigilantes have worked with -- and been part of -- governments throughout the US.

This was especially true in the years after the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act, when White vigilantism became a powerful force in American culture and politics. A wave of vigilante films in the 1970s and 1980s depicted White men fed up with the limits of policing, eager to take the law into their own hands. In part in response to rising crime rates and in part in response to growing Black political power -- two forces routinely conflated -- White vigilantism featured in movies like "Dirty Harry" (where the vigilante himself was a cop) and "Fighting Back" (where vigilantes worked in tandem with the police).

Filmmakers were inspired by people like Anthony Imperiale, a city councilor in Newark who formed the North Ward Citizens Committee, a White vigilante group in New Jersey in the late 1960s. "If the Black Panther comes, the White Hunter will be waiting," Imperiale famously warned, referring to the Black power group that, notably, was not granted the same freedom to act as vigilantes. (Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, pushed for gun control laws in response to Black Panthers carrying firearms.) In reporting on Imperiale in 1968, The New York Times wrote that police "officially frowned on" his organization's street patrols, a description suggesting that unofficially they were more supportive. As were voters in New Jersey: Imperiale would go on to serve as a member of the New Jersey state government for most of the 1970s.

Juries, too, sometimes went easy on vigilantes. In 1984, when four Black teenagers approached Bernhard Goetz on the New York City subway and asked for five dollars, Goetz shot them all, then fled. He became known as the Subway Vigilante, lionized as a force of order in a city plagued by crime. During his trial, Goetz confessed that he'd hoped to kill the teens, who he thought were about to rob him, and that the only thing stopping him was that he'd run out of bullets. That the young people he shot had committed no crimes did not faze Goetz nor the jury that sentenced him to just eight months in jail for criminal possession of a weapon.

That vigilante spirit infused the rise of everything from neighborhood watches to militias in the decades that followed. Though the militia boom that started in the early 1990s at first centered on groups that were explicitly anti-government and anti-police, over time it has grown to include groups who see themselves as an extension of law enforcement, whether as unofficial border patrol agents seizing suspected migrants or armed groups defending Confederate statues or countering anti-racist protests.

Police have often welcomed these groups, as seen in footage from Kenosha, Wisconsin, where shortly before the August shootings, officers thanked the armed men -- including Kyle Rittenhouse -- who appeared at the protests. This was not an uncommon sight at protests this past summer.

A recent report by Michael German at the Brennan Center for Justice outlined not only these incidents, but the ways militias have maintained active ties with law enforcement -- including officers who are part of these groups. The line between police and vigilantes often blurs not only because some officers approve of vigilantism, but because some officers likewise engage in unlawful yet unpunished uses of force against Black people, as decades of police riots and brutality demonstrate.

Some lawmakers welcome them as well, helping to enshrine vigilantism in law. The radical gun jurisprudence and legislation of the past few decades has enabled citizens not only to legally arm themselves with military-grade weapons, but to use those weapons against other humans in increasingly unrestricted ways. That's the case in states like Florida, where the law allowed George Zimmerman to follow and kill 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

That said, as the insurrection at the Capitol last month showed, neither police nor lawmakers are themselves safe from vigilante violence. Considered "oath breakers" by the mob for not helping overturn the election, these members of law enforcement and Congress were no longer viewed as instruments of law and order, but violators of it. That mental shift helps to explain why people bearing "Blue Lives Matter" flags overwhelmed and injured Capitol Police, in violence that left one police officer dead.

Of course, not everyone can engage in armed vigilantism and escape unscathed, left to skip bail or ransack the Capitol. As staff writer David A. Graham noted in The Atlantic in 2016, gun radicalism has extended almost exclusively to White Americans. When Black Americans take up arms, it quickly becomes clear that they are what he called "the Second Amendment's second-class citizens": arrested, charged, and even killed for the sort of gun ownership that White Americans consider a sacred right. Thus while Black vigilantism does exist, it is far riskier to engage in and far less likely to receive the sanction of law than its White counterpart.

Rittenhouse has, of course, been charged, and the facts of his case are still being investigated. But there are many on the right who see his prosecution as a disruption of a tacit understanding that White vigilantes have been sanctioned to police, and even injure or kill, anti-racist activists who they see as disruptive. And no wonder they think so: they have more than 100 years of history showing that, most of the time, that's exactly what "law and order" means.

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What Kyle Rittenhouse's fate reveals about 'law and order' - KCTV Kansas City