Recent discriminatory reactions to policies put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic reinforce a shameful truth black people, unfortunately, are faced with all too often in America. There are few safe courses of action for us in times of prosperity or tragedy. If we follow new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear a cloth facial covering to slow the spread of the virus, we risk being perceived as masked criminals and thrown out of some of the few businesses left open.
That was the case for two black men shopping at an Illinois Walmart store in March. If we don’t, however, follow the guidance, we risk being dragged out of public spaces and deemed threats to public health, which was the case Friday when viral video depicted a patron on a city bus in Philadelphia being forcibly removed.
In the latter example, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) had implemented a new policy Thursday based on the CDC’s guidance requiring patrons to wear facial coverings. “Following this guidance, we URGE all customers to wear a mask or other facial covering when traveling on SEPTA to protect customers and Operators. Surgical masks are being distributed to frontline Operations personnel as part of this effort,” the SEPTA said on its website. “Please comply with this request for your protection and the protection of others.”
When the man ultimately removed from the bus didn’t initially comply, he was asked to leave and refused, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported from a news conference Friday. Responding police officers, in turn, dragged him off of the bus.
“I would expect my officers to continue to do that and support our SEPTA workers,” Managing Director Brian Abernathy said during the news conference.
In another incident, a man believed to be a SEPTA supervisor ordered riders off of a city bus even though some of the patrons wore facial coverings, the Philly Transit Riders Union said in a web statement Friday. "If you do not have a mask, you can not ride public transportation," the supervisor, who wasn’t wearing a mask himself, yelled in the video the transit riders union tweeted. "Sir, sir you have to get off the bus. You have to get off the bus,” he told a black patron.
Although SEPTA has since stopped enforcing the mask policy after admitting it didn’t “do a good enough job notifying the public,” the riders union said the incident gives “a glimpse into the disturbing reality faced by transit riders in Philadelphia.”
It’s a reality black people face in cities throughout America. A white Kentucky doctor was shown choking a black girl allegedly for refusing to abide by social distancing policies, according to NBC News. The doctor, John Rademaker, has since been arrested and charged with first-degree strangulation and harassment with physical contact, NBC reported.
And in yet another incident, two black men told The Washington Post they were forced out of a Walmart in Wood River, Illinois for wearing surgical masks. They recorded themselves and shared the video on YouTube on March 18. “He just followed us from outside, told us that we cannot wear masks,” one of the men said of police in the video.
The United States has the highest death toll resulting from the coronavirus of any country in the world, according to CNN. More than 500,000 people have been infected with the virus and the United States reported more resulting deaths than Italy on Saturday. More than 20,500 people have died in the United States, The New York Times reported. “The coronavirus is real,” one of the men forced out of Walmart said in his footage.
“This police officer just put us out for wearing masks and trying to be safe.”
Hardie Davis Jr., a Georgia mayor and president of the African American Mayors Association, told The Washington Post, “this is a powder keg waiting to take shape.” “The inherent biases that we persistently deal with in America are real. We cannot diminish them,” he said. “It’s one thing for someone white to walk into a store with a mask on; it’s another thing for folks who are black and brown.”