One county in Oregon has decided to exempt its non-White residents from a county law that ordered everyone to have face masks on when they are outside in the public.
Local officials ordered every resident who gets within six feet from someone from a different household to wear a face mask. However, they added that non-Whites do not have to follow this order because of the heightened awareness and concerns over racial profiling.
The health officials urged all its residents to respect and understand any non-White resident who is outside without a face mask on, as they are not violating any regulations.
While the correlation between mandatory facial masks and racial profiling may be unclear, activists argue that it feeds into a dangerous racial stereotype, especially for African Americans. This is mainly because African Americans wear bandanas instead of masks.
In an interview with CNN, an executive from the American Civil Liberties Union said that being forced to wear a bandana is a “lose-lose” situation for many African Americans. She said that they are being forced to choose to either protect themselves from the virus or not feeding into racial stereotypes.
One African American male explained how popular media has promulgated the image of dangerous African Americans wearing bandanas, adding that he does not feel safe to do so because he is concerned about how people may perceive him.
This male, Trevon Logan, said that this was even the case for him although he is a University professor. Logan said how the image of an African American who is covering his or her face is the cliche description of a convict – an image he says he wants to avoid for his safety.
Although the explanation does seem a bit extreme, especially for non-Blacks, there have been real cases in which the wearing of face masks has prevented African Americans from moving around freely.
For instance, two African American males said that they were not allowed in Walmart because they had their masks on. Whether the same discrimination is applied to those who wear regular face masks have not been studied.
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Replaced!