Read on Twitter
1/ I just spoke to my father-in-law who is a psychologist. I asked him 'Why are so many white women reacting in this way'? He talked about the 'chronic unwanted uncertainty' we are all going through, but that these women are also feeling a challenge to their privilege. https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1277327743773016064
2/The challenge to their privilege is on multiple levels. Perhaps many of these women never saw themselves as privileged. Now they perceive being told to 'wear a mask' as a challenge to that (unrealized) privilege. They're reacting w/defensiveness & anger. https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1276882898730323968?s=20
3/Many of us would go out to dinner w/ friends as a form of soothing ourselves from daily anxieties before COVID. Some of these women's coping/soothing mechanisms are perceived as unavailable to them now. Healthy way of coping, wearing a mask. Unhealthy
https://twitter.com/kgwbyp/status/1271642741710217221?s=20
https://twitter.com/kgwbyp/status/1271642741710217221?s=20
4/My father-in-law also stated some people are just "tired" of dealing with (or hearing about) COVID, and because of that, there is a lot of avoidance, denial, fear, and anger coming from them. https://twitter.com/rahm3sh/status/1276647877029363713?s=20
5/It's so American of us to be "over" a pandemic as it's still in the first stages, but this, in a nutshell, is our very American problem, "Denial." Deny racism, deny poverty, deny sexism, deny transphobia, deny ableism, deny xenophobia, etc. If not, we're told to "get over it."
6/There are many reasons a person would behave in an irrational way during COVID, and it's inexcusable that someone is willing to put someone else's life at risk because of their own fears of 'looking weak' or a 'loss of privilege' but there is a bigger conversation to be had.
7/We should rethink what our social contract is with each other in this country. We should normalize taking care of one another (free mental health care etc). We should not only tear down statues of white supremacy but toxic ideas of individualism and the myth of meritocracy.
