That the confederate flag is showing up in these protests is evidence of their political undercurrent.

“There’s a cyclical pattern of extremist communities trying to reinterpret that symbol,” Graves says. “The historical record is pretty clear: it’s the banner of a white supremacist slave project. [But] there's been this attempt to layer over different meanings “ – including that of the rebel pushing back against tyranny. In Michigan, where black Americans make up 14 per cent of the residents but were, at the beginning of April, 41 percent of those who have died from Covid-19, a white person can wave the Confederate flag and insist that, no, they’re the injured party.