Two Black Men Were Kicked Out Of Walmart By Police For Wearing Facemasks

People of color already carry plenty of concerns with them when going outside. Now you can add wearing a facemask to the list. Jermon Best and Diangelo Jackson, both African-American men, were escorted out of a Walmart by a police officer in Wood River, Illinois -- their only crime seemingly being trying to protect themselves from Coronavirus. You can watch the video below, but a warning to those who are frustrated by hypocrisy and paradoxical conundrums, this will make you mad.

Even more frustrating than the video above might be Police Chief Brad Wells' rhino-thick-headed response to it.

"There's not much I can say," said Wells. "I backed the officer by what he tells me. Just like anything, there's more to the story." Wells said the officer "was mistaken when it came to the store's policy prohibiting masks" and it was "the one error" made in the incident. "They immediately went into the race issue," said Wells. "He (the officer) didn't kick them out of the store or refuse entry."

What a brilliant defense. It's true that there was only one error made in the incident if you consider the entire incident happening in and of itself to be the one error. It's much like saying the only thing that went wrong with The Rise of Skywalker is that they bothered to make the movie. This guy is an idiot is our point, but it also shows why this will surely happen again. As long as people in positions of power continue to excuse abuse, then abuse will keep persisting.

Racial profiling due to wearing protective facemasks was not an unexpected outcome by members of the black community. "We have a lot of examples of the presumed criminality of black men in general," Trevon Logan, an economics professor at Ohio State University, said in an interview with CNN. "And then we have the advice to go out in public in something that ... can certainly be read as being criminal or nefarious, particularly when applied to black men." Logan is choosing not to wear a facemask in public despite the CDC's recommendation and you can understand why. If you have to make a choice between taking precautions against the deadly plague of COVID-19 versus the deadly plague of racism, you might be safer saying fuck it and just hope no one around you is too sneeze-y.

Top Image: Screenshot from Jermon Best.