COVID-19, Unhinged Protests and The Glaring Optics of White Privilege!

Witnessing the admittedly disturbing level of heightened protests that have occurred over the past few weeks has led me — and probably many other Americans — to arrive at the unsettling conclusion that free speech is a form of dissent that some people see as a constitutional right, yet it is an act of defiance that should be withheld from others. This has been indisputably evident in the undeniably hypocritical antics of the vibrantly (in a retrograde manner) vocal anti-lockdown protesters who have brazenly, aggressively, and defiantly responded to government-mandated shutdowns.

Armed to the teeth with AKA rifles, other guns, bayonets, confederate and altered Nazi flags, and other-wing paraphernalia, protesters in all regions of the nation, have taken to the streets, county courthouses, state capitals, and other public venues to, in many cases, belligerently demand a reopening of public facilities in a manner that is rude, crude, without apology, and devoid of any level of tact and decorum.

These so-called rebels have garnered the support of numerous men and women on the political and cultural right. Support is widespread among groups ranging from social media bloggers to Republican politicians to rank-and-file conservatives. Vast segments of the right-wing media have avidly lauded the increasingly…