Personal Protective Equipment Against Anti‐Blackness: Communicability and Contagion in the Academy

Abstract

A lethal infectious disease is among us. Alarmingly, the disease burden’s distribution is strikingly unequal. White subjects have a far greater viral load, particularly because of noncompliance with public health guidelines. Yet the virus has a much more harmful impact on Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) populations, which are vulnerable due to structural inequities. The disease is commonly transmitted through talk: The more forcefully an infected individual speaks, the greater the viral shedding of virus‐containing droplets or aerosolized particles; vitriolic political rallies and violent, seditious activities are especially dangerous. However, these widely publicized flare‐ups often overshadow the everyday chronic form of infection, which is even more insidious because it is endemic to the white population and therefore less recognized. therefore less recognized.