How Wearing A Mask Became A Political Symbol
In the beginning, the Coronavirus was scary. Nobody knew anything about the sickness, and we were told it was lethal. There were reports that stated the virus was ten times more deadly than the flu. That hospitals were piling up with bodies and doctors were overwhelmed. Even the most level headed among us were terrified. People were instructed to wash their hands and stay home. School was cancelled, movie theaters and restaurants were a no go and items like cleaners and hand sanitizer flew off the shelves in a desperate hope those things would save us from certain death.
We hunkered down for two weeks to “flatten the curve.” This was to help hospitals deal with the overwhelming number of patients we were promised. We didn’t go out for any reason. Field hospitals were built in big cities to meet the demand, ventilators were mass produced, and we called all healthcare staff “front line” workers as though they were storming the beaches of Normandy.
Only, nothing really happened.
We were promised plague level death tolls. Bodies lining the streets. Exploding lungs and doctors abandoning their posts to cower at home. Anarchy, chaos, and hospitals overflowing with patients desperate to breath.
Of course a few people got the virus and died, but it was overwhelmingly older people in nursing homes. Those who met their demise generally had underlying conditions and were already at the end of their lives. Of course these deaths are tragic, but it’s not exactly unexpected when someone 90 years old with diabetes and heart failure dies when a virus or even a cold comes along.
For most people though, it never seemed like anybody really knew anyone who had contracted the virus. Even so, we were told there were sick people out there somewhere. They had to be. After two weeks staying inside, we decided it simply wasn’t enough. It was suspicious most hospitals seemed empty, but in the end we decided to keep cowering in our homes. The wave of death was cresting just ahead and we were sure to be swept under and taken by the magnitude of this deadly force. If you had to go out, you were instructed to wear a mask.
Of course people got bored and stir crazy. As a result, they started burning things and looting after an isolated incident of police brutality. The started screaming “Black Lives Matter” and “Defund the Police.” They tore down statues of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. They demanded our entire government structure be cut down and rebuilt.
White people were told they were racist for being white. If you didn’t agree you were racist, that made you more racist because you didn’t acknowledge your white privileged. More importantly, you could go out in huge mobs without wearing a mask because racial inequality was far more important than Covid-19.
Then, everything became about race. If you didn’t know anyone with Covid-19 you were racist, because everyone with the virus was black (though statistics don’t support it). The mob explained “front line” workers deal with the masses on a day to day basis. These people work cash registers or as servers and are black. White people sit in their palatial mansions making millions of dollars off of their white privileged, therefore minorities are getting the virus and dying at a much higher rate. That means it’s racist not to shut everything down, and racist not to wear a mask in order to protect black people.
Practically speaking, this virus seems to be much ado about nothing. We are finding out every day more and more people have or have had the virus than not, (black AND white) but interestingly enough, the death toll isn’t going up. If you’re over 70, the death rate increases somewhat, but the overall fatality rate is around 0.02 percent. In fact, it might not even be that high.
Mostly the inflation of cases is due to hospitals getting more money to report Covid cases. They are incentivized to do it, so it’s in their best interest to get the most cases they can. In today’s environment, if a person had the virus in April, recovered by May then got fatally shot in June, it would still be counted as a Covid death because they would test positive for antibodies.
With today’s current trends though, it’s considered racist to believe we should keep the economy going and not wear masks. We act as though all white people are sitting in ivory towers typing away in sterilized rooms making millions while black people work in unsanitary conditions at grunt jobs killing over. It’s simply not true, and the only people who believe this narrative are white people with good jobs that can be done from home.
Those white people who are servers and cashiers working with the public are pissed. It’s insulting to hear constantly how they’ve had it so much better than blacks when they clearly haven’t. If you have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth, it’s much easier to believe the narrative, but poor white people who have had it rough and grew up in a single mother household with ten siblings are angry.
This creates hate to the extent that white power is now a thing. I used to think the KKK was long gone. Something in the past, or at least something on the fringes the vast majority of people hated, but now under the current political environment, it’s alive and well. People who didn’t give a thought to a person’s race before are now taking notice and joining the clan. There are books out now, demonizing white people. White people who never said or did a racist thing in their lives, who were taught to love one another.
Now a days, white people can’t even defend themselves against angry mobs. Just a few days ago, a bunch of trespassing protesters invaded a gated community. The homeowners in this community were scared. The police weren’t going to come out and help them because of the whole “defund the police” narrative that’s going on across the country, so they came out of their house with guns. Yet somehow these people are racist? How is it racist to defend yourself against people attacking your home and your neighborhood?
I’ve personally had it, and refuse to wear the mask. The mask at this point is nothing but pandering to some dumb idea that black people are at a disadvantage. I believe in the United States, everyone has equal opportunity.
Pieces of Me 