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Masking While Black Could Be More Dangerous Than the Alternative
Walking through the world becomes even more fraught
I’m an escapist. For decades, I smoked to avoid feeling too much. But with America in its darkest days due to the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no relief from the emotions that envelop me. Everyday scenes take on a grotesque vividity. A package on my doorstep that used to be harmless is now a phantom enemy. Exchanging money with a supermarket cashier is a slow tragedy; the swooping crescent around a jogging stranger, an awkward comedy. A global health crisis has thrust us into a movie with no plot, hero, or end.
These floods of intensity give me an advantage, though. I know how to fight a stealthy adversary. I’m at home in the gravity of each scene. When the CDC announced that everyone should wear masks to stop the spread of the coronavirus, I switched to battle mode. Yet again, the seemingly harmless and simple guideline ignores the dark history of Black and Brown folks being targets of racial profiling, masked or unmasked. It neglects the unspoken truth that Americans see throngs of faceless Black people as threats. When Trump suggests that a bandana also functions as a cover, he’s describing his White utopia. I live in Harlem, New York, where constant Black voices and faces outside shape the curve of shadows and sun. The police tag boys in bandanas on routine stops. For people like me, martial law’s long been in play.
My city-kid childhood already framed the world as jumpy and unforgiving of my Blackness.
But I’ve accepted our “new normal,” and took my first masked trip to the grocery store last week. Since my dreams now mirror a fugitive drama, I’m unusually prepared for my turn as the Masked Man. My city-kid childhood already framed the world as jumpy and unforgiving of my Blackness; life’s sole mission was to get home safe. That’s something that hasn’t changed my entire life, and likely never will.
My girlfriend and I tick off our list and check the fridge before leaving. We’re staying with my family until the outbreak ends. We survey the house to see if anyone else needs anything and call upstairs to my mom. “I made these masks for you guys,” she says. “I learned…
