Reflexive behavior in a life filled with risks.

I was just driving through Hilltop, a pretty rough neighborhood in Tacoma. I saw a couple of people at the bus stop near the top of the hill. Both were African-American, both engaged in conversation, and both were wearing masks.

During a time in which toxic white privilege has extended to something as seemingly simple and uncontroversial as wearing a mask during the pandemic of a respiratory illness, the wearing of one has taken on powerful political overtones.

Dissenters, usually, but not exclusively white, have been recorded in public engaging in highly anti-social behaviors, yelling and screaming, causing disruption to the lives of everyone around them, simply over being asked, or required, to wear a mask when in a public space with other people.

This is also a time when simply being a young, unarmed African-American person committing no crime can be murdered in the street by a law enforcement officer who suffers no penalty stronger than a two week paid vacation.

People whose lives are constantly at risk in societally unfair ways take every necessary precaution to preserve life whenever possible.

It's the way pragmatism and practicality overcome political controversy.