Why are black women so much more prone to wearing facemasks from what I've seen

The Quarantine Zone
1

I’ve been out twice to a few stores in the last few weeks. I see a decent percentage of people wearing facemasks (not a ton, but maybe 5-10% of people are wearing them).

However from what I’m seeing, I’d wager that about 70% of the people wearing facemasks are black women. Age doesn’t seem to be a factor, young black women wear them as much as older black women. I would’ve assumed the people wearing facemasks would be high risk, so you’d see lots of elderly of all races and genders wearing them while young people were less likely, but that isn’t what I see at all. Age doesn’t seem to be a factor in who wears them, but race and gender do.

Black people in general (male and female) seemed much more prone to wearing them than white people from what I saw, but it was mostly black women. I think I was one of the few white men wearing a mask.

I know the virus has sadly been politicized, but I don’t know if that alone explains it.

Is anyone else noticing this, and if so do they have any idea why?

I had some theories. For one, black women aren’t valued by society as much (lets be honest, society values men more than women and values whites more than non-whites), so maybe they know if they get sick they’re more likely to be SOL.

But I’m also wondering if a lot of black women are sole caregivers for friends and family, and don’t want to cross infect their grandparents, parents, kids, etc. Or maybe the social stigma against wearing masks bothers them less, and black women care less about the stigma.

Its the opposite of what I expected. I assumed the highest risk groups would wear them (older people, especially older men since the disease seems to kill more men). But nope. I’m way more likely to see a black woman in her 30s wearing a mask than I am to see an elderly white man wearing one.

2

They may be diabetic, or have an immediate family member who is; black people are much more susceptible to diabetes than Caucasians, and so are Hispanics and Native Americans.

That’s the most likely reason.

3

My mother managed to order some masks for her and my dad before things popped off. So she is one of the face mask-wearing black women.

However, my black ass does not have a mask. I have gone to the store with a satin scarf wrapped around my mouth, but I have only done that just a couple of times.

My guess is that black women are especially distrustful of what “they” say. “They” said a face mask won’t protect you, so black women were like, “These people are up here lying. Let me go find a mask!”

This, of course, assumes your observations are correct. I have not noticed a whole bunch of black people or women withmasks, but I haven’t been out and about very much.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

4

Here in SoCal, I’ve noticed more masks on Asian people than anyone else. I hope it’s not due to backlash on Wuhan and Asian people. But around here, if an Asian person isn’t wearing a mask, there’s plenty of smartasses to make lewd comments to them.

5

Observation bias.

Stranger

6

That was my guess as well. Black Americans have a long long history of being lied to and misled by authority figures. Given that wearing a mask is a “can’t hurt, could help” thing, it’s only logical that they would think beyond what “they” say and wear masks

(I’ve considered the “don’t bother to wear a mask” thing completely idiotic from the get-go myself)

7

I’d like to chime in and say that I’ve noticed the exact thing.

I live in an area there’s not a large percentage of blacks (under 2%, as opposed to whites at just under 88%). The probably 5x I’ve been to the store in the past few weeks though, at least 1/2 of the blacks in the store were wearing masks, and only today for the first time did I see a white person wearing a mask. it was an older white lady.

*there were also a few people stocking shelves wearing masks, I’m referring specifically to shoppers.

*one thing I found funny was a younger (maybe 30 y.o) black guy and girl that were obviously a couple. they had what I’d guess to be their child with them. she was the only one that had a mask on. seemed pointless.

8

maybe. but when less than 2% of the population (in my area) is doing probably 80% of something, whatever that something is, they sure stand out in a crowd.

9

I wonder whether they’re more likely to be doing jobs classed as essential that involve working closely with other people.

10

I always knew you were black! :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Did you fix your scooter yet?

12

Yes, thanks for asking! I’m fixin’ to go ride right now.