And Yes, Of Course They Aren’t A Monolith.

twitter  |  Just had an illuminating convo with my hubby where he (an essential blue collar worker who never stopped going to his job) floated the idea that all these moving goalposts in the face of what’s now an endemic virus is about professional classes not wanting to return to the office

That implicates a lot of you so maybe take a beat before replying that it’s about saving lives. I’m married to a Black Cuban immigrant who works with 100% people of color. Neither of his Black female colleagues is vaxxed, one of them didn’t even know there was a third shot… 

 

And there’s a ton of mistrust among the Black folks he works around in the vaccines. Like, him telling her people are getting a 3rd shot just makes her feel vindicated - how are these things so good that you have to keep injecting yourself??! I share all this to say that Twitter 

 

By and large acts like these people don’t exist. Whether it’s the “karen and chad” anti-vaxxer memes that totally ignore the vast vaccine hesitancy among Black folks specifically but also a fair share of Latinos, or the elitist calls for new lockdowns that don’t take into account the ppl who can’t work from home, who would be again sacrificed so the professional classes can keep getting their groceries, takeout, supplies, weed, etc - a lot of people on here are incredibly out of touch. And don’t think service workers don’t recognize it. 

 

The pandemic has exacerbated our class divide where white-collar workers are completely divorced from the experiences of blue-collar workers who can’t do their jobs from home but must continue for society to keep functioning. Yes, there are larger structural forces at play - our lack of a safety

net, lack of universal paid leave and healthcare, etc. But that has never been the country we live in and it’s preposterous for people to argue that our whole society should shut down with zero services. They don’t want that. They’re not even considering the vast implications. 

 

It’s fucking Twitter socialism at its most absurd. 

Anyway this thread went a little wonky cuz I’m talking about two different things: vax hesitancy and lockdowns. But they both relate to the racialized class divide and how it’s so rarely acknowledged on here & in pub health msg 

 

So maybe we need a little less listening to Fauci and Walensky and a little more getting the hell out of our homes and start asking our maintenance people, baristas, bus drivers, grocery store workers what they think and how they feel.