Viral photo of a child in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe is not Kyle Rittenhouse

A viral photo collage that includes a 2007 photo of a child in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe is being used as “evidence” that Kyle Rittenhouse — who shot three people, killing two of them, during protests and riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020 — was raised as a white supremacist. But the child in the photo is not Rittenhouse. The photo and similar images taken the same day have gone viral out of context before. Let’s take a look at the facts.

The child in the Ku Klux Klan hood and robe in this meme is not Kyle Rittenhouse.

It is a photo of an unnamed child in rural Arkansas that was taken by the photojournalist Anthony Karen in 2007.

Another photo of this same child circulated out of context in October 2017 with the false claim that it was Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was the White House press secretary at the time.

NewsLit takeaway

Photos that are more tightly focused on photo subjects are easier to take out of context than wider shots. This is one reason why close-up photos of flooding, groups of protesters, gas station signs and empty store shelves often go viral in false contexts. (Another reason is that they can provoke quick, strong emotional responses that ignite existing beliefs.) This close-up photo of a child wearing KKK garb is an example — and could have been taken almost anytime in the last 50 years. It also could easily be falsely identified as anyone who looks even remotely similar as an adult — a particularly potent tactic when the person involved is already polarizing.

Featured Fact-Checks

“No, This Is Not Kyle Rittenhouse Wearing KKK Garb as a Child” (Dan Evon, Snopes).
“Did Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wear a KKK Halloween Costume in 1993?” (Dan Evon, Snopes).