On the Front Line of Mask Bans

A reflection during Black August.

On August 5th, a handful of autonomous organizers from various groups in NYC and Nassau County came together to testify against the Mask Transparency Act— proposed by legislator Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian Jew and former IDF gunsmith part of the 35th Paratroopers Brigade. Lately, there has been a push of Zionists weaponizing anti-semitism under the guise of feigning concern for their safety in response to the Palestinian solidarity encampments that swept the globe just a few months ago. In real time, from the Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to Kamala Harris, to Mazi Pilip, we are seeing imperial nation-states utilize Black faces to carry out their fundamental interests of fascism and genocide, here and abroad. 

Nassau County Legislative hearing on the “Mask Transparency Act,” consisted of several Zionists and known fascists taunting and mocking disabled people who showed up to testify against the proposed mask ban.

The mask ban in Nassau County passed along party lines, 12-0 (7 abstentions). It makes wearing a mask a misdemeanor (with unclear health and religious exemptions) and gives police the power to fine people wearing a mask $1,000 and sentence them to jail time.) TO BE CLEAR: we do not want health exemptions for very simple reasons. Disabled people should not be forced to reveal personal medical information to anyone who is not their doctor—no mask bans, period.

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A post shared by @maskblocnyc

As we begin to see the threat of mask bans spread across party lines, there are a few different responses:

Apathy - “That’s unfortunate!” | “Vulnerable people should probably stay home anyway.”

Denial - “That will never happen to us [insert blue state] here!

Privileged Refusal - “I simply won’t travel there!” | “I hope the tourism board takes the threat of my boycott seriously!”

Faith in the State - “Isn’t this an ADA violation?” | “What about a lawsuit?”

Sympathy without Accountability - “We have to do something about this! We are definitely against a mask ban. We draw the line at mask mandates, though!”

Resistance - No mask bans. No exceptions.

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For the past few months, disabled organizers have been voicing their concerns about the sustainability of movement protests, when there is a clear lack of safety as it relates to directly challenging the state.

Disabled organizers have tirelessly struggled to implement masking policies at protests to keep everyone safe—even as we’re seeing over 1 million new COVID cases each day, with other lethal viruses looming in the not-so-distance. 

As faculty and staff return to campuses for the Fall semester, the University of California declared that masks were banned, from all 10 campuses across the state. We have spent the entire summer trying to repair the damage that has been caused by Palestinian solidarity protestors, and other self-proclaimed “leftists” who have undermined and scoffed at attempts to address the current contradictions informed by anti-Blackness and COVID denialism that exist in our movements. It should take little convincing of anyone against imperialism and genocide, that mitigating the spread of debilitating viruses by wearing a high-quality mask is the bare minimum any of us can do to keep our communities safe. This demonstrates that we are invested in our short-term well-being and our long-term commitment to resisting genocides at home and abroad.

Reactionaries have instead decided that anyone who holds this position is acting in bad faith, or is an agent of the state with intentions to sow divisions in leftist movements. This aggressive perception is commonly directed towards Black and disabled MaGes (marginalized genders). I have personally been on the receiving end of this treatment for several years now, but it is heartbreaking to witness it happen to younger organizers for the first time.

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As a disability justice trainer who relies on abolitionist frameworks to inform strategies and tactics, it has been appalling to see former “abolitionist” comrades abandon COVID mitigations. They have abandoned disabled people in their own communities, and couldn’t be bothered to support incarcerated disabled people, as the state siphoned access to PPE behind prison walls.

Prisons don’t distribute PPE, incarcerated people have been retaliated against (in the form of solitary confinement) for any type of self-advocacy when it comes to seeking a COVID test, so they know better than to tell staff that they suspect having an infection…

Incarcerated disabled people are often excluded from having jobs in prisons. Some basic items such as Tylenol and water are subject to significant price gouging. The state relies on funding to fill beds, regardless of whether folks have labor that can be exploited. The state also relies on incarcerated loved ones putting money on commissaries, sending books and other recreational supplies, and charging various rates for limited daily phone and monthly video communications. I won’t even get into how inaccessible video calls are (staticky connections, no captions, loud and distracting background noise, etc.)

Experiencing the consequences of mask bans is some people’s first time learning about state repression and it’s hard to express how underprepared we all are. Folks are inquiring about ADA violations and lawsuits as if we could trust the state to begin with! Which person on Medicaid or SSDI has lawsuit money? I certainly do not.

Incarcerated people experience abusive discrimination, especially when advocating for themselves. 

It should be no surprise that the same will happen to anyone who becomes criminalized for wearing masks… please wake the fuck up!!

This shouldn’t be the first time folks become worried about disabled people captured by the state, for any amount of time. 

Being locked up in a cage will disable any human being. Disability justice requires abolitionist praxis and when people make concessions…shit like this is happening all over the world! What happened to being anti-imperialist? Or does that stop at holding up a Palestinian flag in the street? We do need to be more militant because the most marginalized people are dying, and a lot of them are locked up and systematically disenfranchised.  It is imperative to unpack the denial of genocide that occurs within the imperial core’s internal colonies. Organizers resisting genocide need to deconstruct notions of liberation that move far past these fake borders of nation-states.

We see the state criminalizing the homeless and encampments. We see people becoming further debilitated by Long COVID, unable to work, and relying on crowdfunding to survive. Some people have correctly identified that the state’s goal is to disappear us, through repression and institutionalization. Albeit, many oversimplify the state’s motives being “slave labor,” when it extends far beyond that. Disability justice informed by abolition requires recognizing that the exploitation of people’s labor is not the only motive that the state has. The root of the state’s motives is extraction and disabled people are most familiar with this via the “crip tax.”

Keep wearing a mask. Know your rights. Don’t bend. We do not negotiate with the state. We need to sustain our movements and support folks on the front lines of these fights. 

If you consider abolition and harm reduction as fundamental frameworks that inform your pandemic justice work, please send updated COVID info into prisons.

Don’t let the state disappear more of our community. Support incarcerated people.