THE DILEMMA
The pandemic is starting to take its toll on me. I do my part and follow international and local guidance. I social distance. I wear a mask. I go out only to get groceries, and in many cases not even for that reason. I stay home. I do not invite 100 people for a Christmas party. It is frustrating, but I do it because I understand the consequences of not doing it. My child could be the next person infected. My parents could be the next persons infected. And I could be the carrier of a disease that I may survive, but that I could give to those who I love and get them killed. So, I follow the rules, even if they are limiting.
Even I, a confessed unsocial individual, wish I could go places sometimes. I wish I could go to my singing classes, or even to the office. But I comply with the rules, because there is a greater good to protect than my own wishes.
It troubles me to watch the news and learn about white people protesting governmental regulations about the mask. Banners in hand and rage in their faces, there they go, marching in the streets and into the stores, claiming their right to absolute freedom, insulting anyone who challenges them, acting as if they were the helpless victims of an oppressive system that doesn’t understand them.
Funnily and ironically, in trying to understand the rationale behind some white people’s resistance to wear a mask, I learned what wearing a mask means for Black people.
In times of COVID, Black people, in some countries more than others, are stuck in a dilemma: to wear a mask or not to wear it. As senseless as it sounds, it is a real dilemma. The question for them, however, is not whether they will be less free if they wear a mask. The question is whether wearing a mask will make them more likely to be abused, humiliated, wrongfully arrested or killed.
Outrageously, Black people are assumed dangerous by white people even in the most innocent of situations: taking a walk at the park, going to a restaurant with their families, driving around the city. White people call 911 to report a “suspicious” person in the park, in the restaurant, in the streets. The colour of their skin is the only thing different about them. Often these calls have a tragic end for the Black person, and that is without wearing a mask. I can easily understand why a Black person would choose not to wear it. It is about balancing two dangerous outcomes and deciding which one is most likely to occur.
But you, white person, have not even thought about the balancing exercise that Black people go through in the face of a simple and temporary health-oriented rule. No. You are busy collecting other white people and getting organized to protest the mask rule, because you feel it threatens your freedom. You cannot possibly be asked to think about others, and by others I don’t mean just the strangers you meet in the stores, but your loved ones. You act as if you were immune to the risk of COVID. You take your children to march with you. They mimic your gestures, your arrogance, your anger towards those who try to stop you. You make sure everybody knows you are superior. You want to make sure everybody understands that your right to breathe over as many people as you wish is the most important right in the world, because you are the most important individual in the world. You are the center of the universe. You think you are as precious as the last coca cola in the dessert. Your reckless disregard for the safety of others is astonishing.
What is your dilemma, white person? You say the rule to wear a mask in public spaces impacts your freedom, but, please, do elaborate. I can think of many, many rules that limit our freedom. As a matter of fact, most rules have precisely that purpose: set some boundaries to our freedom. And all of them are necessary, so that we don’t exterminate ourselves within a week. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not harm others. Pay your taxes. Do not drink and drive. Stop at the red light. Take your computer out of your bag and place it in a container and through the scanner at the airport before you can go to your gate. Wait to be seated at the restaurant. Pay for what you take from a shelf in a store. Get to work on time.
I understand that you were raised in a system that was built upon the protection of individual freedoms, but even the most hard-line classical liberals will tell you that freedom is bound by rightness and fairness. Do as you wish, provided you do not harm others or prevent others from obtaining what they deserve. Ask John Stuart Mill if you don’t believe me. So, what is so offensive to you about a rule that is intended to protect you, your family, the people in your community, the front-line workers that will attend to you if you get infected with COVID? What danger does the mask pose to you or your freedom?
As you walk into a store without a mask, I hope the day you get sick you will be as consistent in following through your beliefs as you are defiant and arrogant today. Since your “freedom” is so absolute, I am sure you will agree that the right of those who wear a mask to get medical attention if they get sick with COVID is absolutely greater than yours. Since you believe that COVID is a hoax and that it is just like any other flu, I am assuming you are not even considering lining up to be the first to be vaccinated. You should not get vaccinated at all. Since you have no interest in showing common sense, compassion, and solidarity, I am sure you will not expect those reactions from others if you or your children get sick. And if you do get sick, I guess we can rest confident that we will not see you take a hospital bed and a ventilator to breathe for you.
Ignore me. All that is just wishful thinking. I know you. You are the one who wants their cake and eat to. You are the system-created parasite that only thinks about him/herself; you are the one with such great sense of entitlement, that you get to protest to free yourself up from the mask oppression, but you are already asking where your vaccine is. You are the selfish, narcissistic person that goes shopping to the mall without a mask and who will likely make that call to 911 to report a Black person because he or she is suspiciously wearing it. You are that person. And you are not necessarily a bad person. But you are an ignorant person. And please take that as a compliment. If I call you ignorant, I mean you have no knowledge, but you are capable of it.
If 2020 has taught us something is that we are absurdly disconnected from each other. We have a great deal to learn about others, but more importantly, we have a lot to learn about ourselves. We better start educating ourselves about the foundation of our own beliefs, so we can leave the protests for those who are truly oppressed.
