Covid Batman

I am distressed about the two tragedies of this year, the Covid-19 pandemic and violence against African Americans. My response is to become a crusader, but that response is quite different in each case.

Covid-19 is public enemy number one and I have become the mask police. Like Batman, I’m engaging with some Jokers and Riddlers.

I entered a restaurant to pick up food.  A young couple stood giggling inside the doorway. Their masks were pushed aside. Noticing me on the other side of the door, they waved me in! I refused to step inside. I asked them to leave because they didn’t wear their masks properly.

In the supermarket, a man brushed past me sipping a cup of coffee. His mask was dangling below his chin. I asked him to put on his mask. The man responded, “how am I supposed to drink my coffee?” I said, you aren’t supposed to be walking around with coffee!

These mask infractions are reminders that this pandemic will continue as long as people are self-centered and self-important. Only when we care as much for others as we do for our own safety will the pandemic abate.

My response to mask offenders is crude and brash. I have wondered, am I as willing to be as outspoken regarding violence agains African Americans?

I am deeply troubled to see other people so wronged. Racism infects our society and defiles our nation. And I must acknowledge that I remain privileged by virtue of my skin color.

This week in Minneapolis, a white policeman killed a black man. George Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. Officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to keep Floyd in a neck hold . . .  until Floyd died. Cities have exploded in protest.

In February, two armed white men chased a young black man jogging near Brunswick, Georgia. Ahmaud Arbery was suspect only because he was black. His murderers, Gregory and Travis McMichael, grabbed their shotguns and killed Arbery in cold blood.

Confronting mask offenders is easy. Standing against racial injustice in America is a lot harder.  My mismatched faces-to-mask encounters are quaint. The protests responding to the murders of Arbery and Floyd are deadly serious.

Fear, prejudice and violence will only end when individuals take on the responsibility of change. Unlike my masked avenger approach, we can’t select racists on the street and dislodge their masks. We all need better strategies.

For the Jewish community, I hope to do the following. First, I want to consult with African American clergy. How we can design programs for communities to not merely communicate but become allies.  Second, I will encourage everyone to take on the spiritual practice of “b’zelem elochim.” Whenever you are out in public, look at each person around you and remind yourself that they too were created in God’s image.  Third, some of our charitable giving must support minority communities. Fourth, we must press our elected representatives to end unwarranted police violence against African Americans.

That list is a start. We need more mechanisms to obliterate racism.  The efforts may go on for more than the rest of our lifetimes, but the time to act is now.

Rabbi Evan Krame