A Woman Was Assaulted After Telling Someone to Wear Their Mask
By: Rebeca Ansar
Tags: Covid 19, Society, America, Culture, Health

She just wanted the people around her to wear masks.

In early August, a dispute was caught on camera at a Staples store in Hackensack, New Jersey. 54-year-old Margot Kagan, told another woman, 25-year-old Terri Thomas to properly wear her mask inside the store because Thomas’s mask was not fully covering her nose and mouth. At the time, the two customers were using adjacent fax machines.

In the disturbing video, Kagan is seen wearing a face shield. She recently underwent a liver transplant and was using a cane to get around. Because of her age group and her surgery, her body’s susceptibility to complications from COVID-19 is likely higher.

In response, Thomas approached Kagan, accosted her with profanity, and when Kagan tried to create distance between Thomas and herself, Thomas grabbed Kagan and lunged her to the ground. Then, she casually flipped back her hair and walked out of the store as Kagan remained on the floor, holding her leg.

Afterward, Kagan was taken to a hospital, where she had to go through even more surgery, this time to repair the broken tibia she incurred from the assault.

It’s a really hard video to watch even once. I’ve watched it a few times for fact-checking, and each time, I’m left feeling more disheartened.

We’ve been seeing many instances of this. When asked to wear a mask, people become defensive to the point of aggression. There have even been instances of people coughing on those that asked them to wear a mask. The disregard for human life is revolting.

Our racial, religious, and political identities in this regard should come second to our identities as people who have basic regard for human life.

This doesn’t have any bearing on BLM.

Many onlookers have tried to use this instance to either support or discredit the Black Lives Matter Movement. From my perspective, race was not the contentious issue here. At least, it shouldn’t have been. The fact that Margot Kagan is a White woman does not automatically render her a “Karen.”

She is still allowed to ask others to respect her right to safety.

Similarly, the fact that Terri Thomas is a black woman does not automatically mean that the BLM movement is just a cover for unscrupulous aggressors. There is too much evidence and far too many lived experiences for us to ignore racism any longer.

We can believe that we must end structural injustices against Black Americans and simultaneously find Thomas’s actions unacceptable.

Of course white supremacy exists, and it is ubiquitous. It is still not the determinant in every situation all the time. One thing I’ve found from living in bubbles of both political extremes is this- there are people on both sides that don’t understand why not wearing a mask is a serious public health issue.

We wear masks for a reason similar to why we get vaccines.

We don’t just get them so that we stay safe. By lowering our risk of infection, we also lower the risk that we will pass on the infection to a more vulnerable member of our population.

We are still facing the pandemic.

We’re not done. Even though many places in the United States are opening back up, COVID-19 has not gone away.

Maybe we will have to learn to live with the coronavirus for the long term, but when there is a mandate stating that people in public spaces must wear masks, there really is no reasonable justification for throwing a tantrum and refusing to do so.

Our racial, religious, and political identities in this regard should come second to our identities as people who have basic regard for human life.

Is your “right to not wear a mask” worth your neighbor’s life?