Athlete Gwen Berry made headlines this past weekend after she won third place in the Olympic track and field trials, earning her a position on the U.S. Olympic team. The hammer thrower caused a bit of controversy when she turned her back during the playing of the national anthem.

Naturally, Berry received an outpouring of outrage at her unpatriotic act. Many noted the irony of showing contempt for the country she seeks to represent before the rest of the world.

The athlete took to Twitter on Sunday to address the criticism she was receiving on social media and elsewhere. She wrote:

“These comments really show that:

1.) people in American rally patriotism over basic morality

2.) Even after the murder of George Floyd and so many others; the commercials, statements, and phony sentiments regarding black lives were just a hoax.

These comments really show that:

1.) people in American rally patriotism over basic morality

2.) Even after the murder of George Floyd and so many others; the commercials, statements, and phony sentiments regarding black lives were just a hoax

— Gwen Berry OLY (@MzBerryThrows) June 28, 2021

She continued, thanking people for defending her. “I never said I hated this country! People try to put words in my mouth but they can’t. That’s why I speak out. I LOVE MY PEOPLE,” she tweeted.

Berry’s tweet was correct.

Not necessarily her first point, but her second point, which highlights the dishonestly and hypocrisy of the hard left and the woke corporations who use race issues to attain clout and profit. Whether intentionally, or unintentionally, she issued valid criticism against those who pretend to care about black lives but, in reality, are nothing more than virtue signalers.

Dale Carnegie once said: “Pay less attention to what men say. Just watch what they do.”

When applying this principle to the hard left’s proclamations of support for the black community after the murder of George Floyd, one can easily see how much these individuals and organizations truly feel. Remember when companies came out in support of black America after protests and riots swept the nation last year? They promised to use their wealth to benefit the black community in a variety of different ways.

But, as I wrote previously, they were just kidding.

Last month, it was revealed that very few of these companies actually took steps to fulfill their pledges. Indeed, despite vowing to donate $50 billion in total to causes designed to uplift the black community, a very small percentage of this amount has materialized. Now, a black economist is working to hold these companies accountable for failing to honor the promises they made.

Even worse, however, is that in response to the furor over Floyd’s murder, the hard left used the incident to push for an agenda that had nothing to do with safeguarding black lives. Demands to “defund the police” became their rallying cry and the hard left poured tons of money and resources into pressuring cities to slash police budget in a way that resulted in fewer police officers on the streets. They did this despite the fact that the vast majority of African Americans did not favor decreasing the number of officers in their neighborhoods.

Now, the nation is seeing a drastic increase in violent crime. The black community is being disproportionately impacted by a surge in homicides. In cities that chose to decrease the level of police activity, blacks have been hit the hardest by this trend.

Democrats like New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, have blown off the increasing violent crime rates, attributing it to other factors like the COVID-19 pandemic. President Joe Biden and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also deflected, claiming that the rise in gun violence was due to the lack of strict gun control laws that would do nothing to prevent these incidents.

To put it simply, the hard left has demonstrated through their actions that they do not care about protecting black lives. To these folks, black people are nothing more than expendable pawns. Black deaths are only useful political tools for them to exploit. In light of this, Berry is correct: The outpouring of statements expressing solidarity with the plight of black Americans is a hoax, plain and simple.