The Pandemic Paradox
“Normal is not something to aspire to. It’s something to get away from”
Jodie Foster
There’s a new vaccine for Covid-19. Yet not all marginalized communities have access to the vaccine. In addition, not all marginalized commuities feel safe or comfortable taking the vaccine after centuries of lawful experimentation and testing on Black and Indigenous bodies.
The vaccine also presents a reality I had hoped to avoid a while longer, but knew would come all too soon: people clamoring to return to their pre-Covid routines, post-quarantine. Extroverts to their parties and large gatherings; micro-managers to their offices and over their teams; overcrowding in public spaces. The requested and mapped out six feet of distance will, sadly, be a beautiful thing of the past.
It’s unfortunate that many of the lessons learned, and the light shone on things like giving the environment a break or what marginalized people face daily, will be gaslit away or distorted, like most violent, historical events.
However, I can’t be the only one who watches shows or movies now and thinks, “we really sardined our bodies up against complete strangers at concerts, inhaling each other’s spittle like no big deal.” Movie theaters? We somehow sat through two hours of close proximity to whole households with colds because…IMAX.
In my opinion, what constitutes as “normal” is based on a white, patriarchal social construct created in a class society and often accepted by others in order to justify our inequitable day to day lives. However, when something like a global pandemic literally shakes the foundation of this country and exposes who we are as people, how could anyone ever consider going back to a “pre-pandemic normal”? Knowing what we know now and after seeing some of the best and worst points of humanity should turn how we live our day to day lives on its head. Alas, many will go back to the familiar in fear, no matter how archaic it was. But I hope the momentum of change, unity, growth, and resistance we saw over the past year reverberates for generations to come.
I think the answer to the reason as to why people want to go back to the “pre-pandemic normal” can best be answered with probably the most apropos question “will you take the blue pill or the red pill”…most people want to take the blue pill so they can go back to sleep. Go back to the things that corrupt their mind or make them numb or give them the ability to ignore whats going on around them because “its not affecting them”. Where as the minority that have clamored for the distractions and the oppressive noise to be dialed down so that the progressive and transcendent roars can be heard have no intention of taking the blue pill or being told to go back to sleep. No matter how much “normal” may be wanted back by some it will not return. The curtain has been pulled back in so many ways and the veil has been lifted and even though some things will pick up again and those that took the blue pill will run to their pods. Those that embraced the red pill and waited for something to truly break the status quo; not just in one city or state but in the whole world are wide awake and on their feet. 2020 was the start of a new decade and with it well we were all witnesses but to quantify it all in the best way would be to say there’s been a paradigm shift. There is no going back only what is next to come because there is no question the paradigm is still shifting!