Pandemic Imaginaries and the Racial Politics of Masking.

Masks have become part of the racial identity politics of our pandemic culture. In addition to providing protection from the coronavirus, masks play a symbolic role in pandemic imaginaries by reconstituting pre-existing racial ideologies and formations in new ways that separate good liberal citizens from "folk devils." While some masked bodies are valorized and heralded as preserving the public good, others are rendered suspect and subject to greater surveillance, regulation, ostracism and exclusion. Rather than serving as a leveling device, the cultural politics of wearing masks exposes the entrenched inequalities that have resurfaced during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]