If her being black is somehow unmentionable yet controversial enough that you spent the majority of your post addressing it and “there are white lady examples out there,” then why didn’t you just use a white lady example instead of making such a show of things?

I disagree here. The First Amendment protects citizens from government infringement of speech. But that isn’t the totality of free speech. Free speech isn’t identical to the First Amendment. Free speech is a larger principle that is encapsulated by the First Amendment. They shouldn’t be conflated.

I don’t really have any dispute with that. I have just been troubled lately with people conflating the protections of the First Amendment with the idea of free speech generally. Even if it is not the government acting on an individual, I believe that we need to take the idea of free speech as a principle seriously…

The First Amendment is protection from restrictions by the federal government, not private companies. Free speech is a general principle that we should respect regardless of the parties involved. We shouldn’t equate the two.