People of Color Exempt From Wearing Masks in Oregon County In Response to Racial Profiling

A county in Oregon is exempting people of color from wearing face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic over concerns of racial profiling.

Lincoln County is one of the counties announced by Governor Kate Brown to have a mandatory face mask policy, but the guideline for Lincoln features an exception for “people of color who have heightened concerns about racial profiling and harassment due to wearing face coverings in public.”

The directive also said the mandate is “self-executing” and “no person shall intimidate or harass people who do not comply.”

It also exempts children under the age of 12, people with a medical condition that would be “exacerbated” by a facial covering and those with disabilities preventing them from wearing a mask correctly.

According to a census, Lincoln county has a population of 50,000 where 82% are white. Hispanics are 9.5% of the population, Native Americans 3.9%, Asians 1.4%, less than 1% are Black and Pacific Islanders make up .2%.

Some argue the facial masks can put non-white residents in danger.

“For many Black people, deciding whether or not to wear a bandanna in public to protect themselves and others from contracting coronavirus is a lose-lose situation that can result in life-threatening consequences either way,” ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, told CNN.

Trevor Logan, a Black economics professor at Ohio State University, spoke with the outlet, saying, “This [wearing a mask] seems like a reasonable response unless you just sort of take American society out of it. When you can’t do that, you’re basically telling people to look dangerous given racial stereotypes that are out there.”

“This is in the larger context of Black men fitting the description of a suspect who has a hood on, who has a face covering on,” he continued.

“It looks like almost every criminal sketch of any garden-variety Black suspect.”

Also concerning to officials is the disproportionate rate the coronavirus is affecting the Black community compared to other communities.

According to the American Public Media Research Lab, “the latest overall COVID-19 mortality rate for Black Americans is 2.3 times as high as the rate for whites and Asians, and 2.2 times as high as the Latino rate.”