Masking Up: A COVID-19 Face-off between Anti-Mask Laws and Mandatory Mask Orders for Black Americans

Mandatory PPE orders during COVID-19 have forced Black Americans to weigh the dangers of disease against the dangers of selective enforcement and racial profiling. In states with civil rights-era anti-mask laws, both wearing and eschewing masks could lead to police interaction. This Article argues that anti-mask laws were only superficially intended to protect Black Americans, continue to harm minorities during COVID-19, and should be repealed. It motivates this policy by empirically showing the ineffectiveness of anti-mask laws and the statistically significant relationships between PPE usage patterns and race. A revisionist legal history reveals anti-mask laws’ racist underpinnings, further motivating their repeal.https://coviddynamic.caltech.edu/https://osf.io/wjdrf/https://www.californialawreview.org/covid-19-mask-orders-black-americans/