Nicholas Sandmann was 16 when he stood with classmates at Lincoln Memorial waiting for school bus. Native American beat drum in his face but he was called racist for smiling. He writes op-ed sympathizing with Rittenhouse, also called racist for no reason.
Using a terrible word like “racist” unfairly is not just an insult. Even worse, it cheapens the word until it becomes meaningless. If 16-year-old Sandmann was a “racist” for smiling when a man beat a drum in his face, and if White Kyle Rittenhouse is a “racist” for shooting 3 White men, then the word has no meaning, and we have no way to describe real racists. And that is a real shame.