It’s true that the coronavirus in America is killing more men than women, and more African Americans than whites; as Twitchy reported, President Trump said at Tuesday’s press briefing that within two weeks his administration would be providing data on COVID-19’s disproportionate effect on black Americans.
It’s also true that many Americans are bristling against states’ stay-at-home orders, especially in Michigan, where thousands of people participated in something called #OperationGridlock to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s especially sweeping crackdown on things like buying seeds or landscaping or driving to your vacation home.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the smart and thuggish Beyoncé of journalism and a contributor to the New York Times’ 1619 Project, noticed among the Michigan protesters a Confederate flag and put the pieces together: All of these white protesters want to lift the stay-at-home order because they know blacks are more susceptible to dying from COVID-19.
Ask yourself: What do Confederate flags have to do with protesting a stay-at-home order and why do the same people who fly Trump flags also fly flags honoring the side that fought to preserve slavery? https://t.co/of9q5GYOiA
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) April 15, 2020
In other words: If y'all think this protest against stay-at-home measures just coincidentally follows the release last week of racial data showing black people are dying at the highest rates across the nation, then you don't know your country very well.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) April 15, 2020
It's amazing to me how many people actually still think the Confederate flag is a Southern symbol and not simply a racist one. White people fly that flag all across the country in states that fought on the Union side because it symbolizes a racial belief, not a regional one.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) April 15, 2020
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And actually, though Michigan was not in the Confederacy, it was at one time a slave state. Some of the most recognizable names in Michigan, like Macomb of Macomb County, and Woodward of the main Detroit thoroughfare, were enslavers.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) April 15, 2020
Keep in mind that school districts across the nation have integrated the New York Times’ 1619 project into their curricula.
What are you suggesting with this tweet, exactly? What do you think the connection is between the data and the protestors?
— clocks (@DMGiac) April 15, 2020
Why are they flying Confederate flags?
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) April 15, 2020
Just a guess, but maybe a lot of people still see it as a symbol of rebellion more so than an endorsement of slavery? And how many were there exactly? We could be wrong, but it doesn’t look like a lot — not enough to tar thousands of protesters as racists.
In any case, Wells opened a lot of eyes, apparently:
I love how you continue to point out the facts!!
— Maria Ivy (@mimi_ivy) April 15, 2020
They might as well shout "Let the blacks die! We got stuff to do!" Couldn't make it any more obvious.
— Eddie (@angryblackbiguy) April 15, 2020
Not a coincidence at all.
— Lynne Green (@wanderinglady) April 15, 2020
Preach.
— VoiceofReason (@ThatWokeAuntie) April 15, 2020
I would have never considered this. Thank you for your work.
Now that the connection has been made for me, it makes sense. If the data had said white folks were more at risk of dying, there wouldn’t be protests.
— Ashley Quarandease (@ashleydease) April 15, 2020
The not-so-woke weren’t necessarily buying that explanation, though.
This is that tin-foil hat shit.
— JRP (@JRPSD) April 15, 2020
Hey, thanks for this. I like to get my fill of Crazy Twitter by 5 each day, and now I'm set!!
— JeffHanson (@IronLeagueThug) April 15, 2020
You make me sad.
You should let go of that chip on your shoulder, but if you don't just know most of us don't want any part of it.
You can have it all to yourself.
— King paperwork (@PaperworkKing) April 15, 2020
If you think a virus targets people based on race, and not pre-existing health conditions (like heart issues, weight etc) than you have issues…
— Patrick S. Read (@SwiftRead) April 15, 2020
Is it so impossible to believe most people are upset by the prospect of losing their livelihoods on account of a pandemic + mandatory stay-at-home orders?
Millions newly unemployed. Palpable uncertainty that has the entire planet on edge… "Wait! is that a confederate flag!?" https://t.co/3ZZlcU0VQB
— Kmele (@kmele) April 15, 2020
There are real debates to be had. Lives are being lost and irreparably upended…
But the substance of these pandemic-so-racist tropes is almost entirely phantasmagorical. It’s a sadistic kind of wish-casting. I don’t pretend to understand why anyone wants to believe this.
— Kmele (@kmele) April 15, 2020
There are racial disparities, but they’re uneven, complex, and largely derivative of the actual epidemiological risk factors we’ve already pinned down.
If you ACTUALLY want to safeguard the vulnerable + arrest the emergency, you’ll need to do much better than identity politics.
— Kmele (@kmele) April 15, 2020
Hannah-Jones replied to that guy who was using all the big words and stuff but deleted her tweet for some reason; here it is:
We thought he made some good points. And we believe “none of the protesters were black” as much as we believed all the people who claimed that none of the protesters at the Second Amendment rally in Virginia were black.
Anyway, there you have it: If the COVID-19 virus killed more white people than blacks, there wouldn’t have been a protest.
Related:
Dumbest take on the #VirginiaRally? Protesters were racists defending gun rights ‘that don’t extend to black people’ https://t.co/LBeKVCLF1e
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 21, 2020
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