A couple hundred people — waving American flags, singing patriotic tunes, wearing pro-Donald Trump T-shirts and eschewing face masks — gathered in front of the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday for an event billed as United We Stand & Patriots March for America.
Speakers drew applause with familiar conservative arguments: that mask mandates infringe on citizens' rights, that the dangers of COVID-19 have been exaggerated, that Trump should be re-elected.
Saturday's rally also compared left-wing politics focused onracial equity to slavery or the stances of the Ku Klux Klan.
The audience included at least a couple dozen people of color, and several of the speakers were Black.
Among them was Joy Villa, a Los Angeles-based singer well-known on social media as a conservative Black activist.
"We see color, but we don't make it all about who we are," Villa said. "They want to reduce Black people to their bodies. I will say it again — slavery is over."
Villa and several other speakers denounced Black Lives Matter and the protests in Minneapolis following George Floyd's killing while in police custody.
"White people are the devil, if you listen to Black Lives Matter," she said.