In the week that passed, attacks against the Freedom Convoy escalated from both government and media. On Tuesday, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau accused a Jewish MP of supporting Nazis because she disagreed with his authoritarian use of the Emergencies Act, and right on cue, press outlets are now following suit with that theme.
According to The Washington Post, the Freedom Convoy is “rooted” in Canada’s “colonial history.” Worse, the desire for basic freedom that underscores the protest is itself a “key component of white supremacy.”
It’s happened: Freedom is white supremacist.https://t.co/Xd8pvQcWjL pic.twitter.com/v247TpBXaW
— Leighton Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) February 16, 2022
The convoy has surprised onlookers in the United States and Canada, both because of the explicitly racist and violent perspectives of some of the organizers and because the action seems to violate norms of Canadian “politeness.” But the convoy represents the extension of a strain of Canadian history that has long masked itself behind “peacefulness” or “unity”: settler colonialism. This latest manifestation of white supremacy appears to be happening in the midst of a crisis in public health. The history of Canadian settler colonialism and public health demonstrates how both overt white-supremacist claims and seemingly more inert nationalistic claims about “unity” and “freedom” both enable and erase ongoing harm to marginalized communities.
Note that the author of the piece never actually provides any evidence that “some of the organizers” are “explicitly” racist and violent. You’d think a charge that serious would come with at least one example, but who needs proof when it comes to smearing an entire movement of working-class individuals who just want to be able to ride in their trucks without the government interfering?
She then goes from that completely unproven, slanderous contention to confidently labeling the Freedom Convoy as an “expression of white supremacy.” According to her, people protesting COVID mandates in 2022 is just an extension of “settler colonialism” that began hundreds of years prior in Canada.
After much discussion along these lines, the article finally comes to the core of its argument: Freedom is itself white supremacy.
Pandemic mandates are argued by predominantly white supporters of Freedom Convoy that infringe on their constitutional freedoms. The notion of “freedom” was historically and remains intertwined with Whiteness, as historian Tyler Stovall has argued. The belief that one’s entitlement to freedom is a key component of White supremacy. This is why Freedom Convoy members believe they are entitled to freedom regardless of the health effects on others.
Yes, Freedom Convoy supporters tend to be predominantly white. What is Canada? It’s a primarily white country. Yet, in the woke-sphere that these lunatics call home, the value and legitimacy of a person’s speech are directly tied to their race. According to this author and this “historian,” the fact that a white person is asking for freedom is simply proof of their white supremacy, and they must be destroyed.
In simpler times, we’d all call such a charge overtly racist because it is. But in today’s insane political environment, that kind of prejudice gets you printed in The Washington Post and lauded as an “expert.”
As to the notion that the Freedom Convoy doesn’t care about “public health consequences,” that’s false as well. Most of them are vaccinated, and of those that aren’t, many have natural immunity. Still, the vaccines do not stop the spread of COVID-19, thus, there are no “public health consequences” stemming from truckers not getting the vaccine. That doesn’t matter, though. Their speech is invalid because they are white.
It’s incredibly disturbing to see racism being mainstreamed like this just because it targets the “right” people in the eyes of the left. Society can’t survive when groups of individuals are placed under such strictures simply because of the color of their skin. Freedom is freedom. It’s not something you can whistle, and there is no white supremacy that wants it.
This article from the Post, to be honest, is on a dark road. Freedom is defined as white supremacy, and anyone who wants it socially unacceptable, then that can open the door to mistreatment and even violence. What’s in that article is the kind of framing that has led to many historical atrocities. This type of thinking should not ever be considered normal. This kind of racism should not be tolerated.
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