I’m Not Using Handkerchiefs Or Bandanas As Face Masks Because I’m Black Trying To Stay Alive In America

Wearing face masks making us look like bandits could be dangerous for Black people.

Image credit: Dwight Stone used via CC BY-SA 2.0

Being Black in the United States is already a deadly proposition.

While the world grapples with the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Black community has long been coping with an additional epidemic just as deadly to us: the use of the police to harass, brutalize, and murder us.

Living in Black bodies means we are criminalized for just being. The police are called on us for having the audacity to engage in everyday activities including:

• Waiting to meet someone at Starbucks
• Attempting to move into our own homes
• Having a barbeque in a park
• Being young and selling bottled water

The list goes on and on.

Tragically, these encounters with the police could — and have — ended with an innocent Black person being killed.

So there is no way in hell during this pandemic — or otherwise — I, as a Black man, am going to wear a face mask made from a handkerchief or any other material that will make me look like the…