UBC professor says not masking is racist, ableist and classist

A professor at the University of British Columbia claims those who don’t wear masks are racist, ableist and classist.

Dr. Amy Tan, who is also the director of teacher assessment and an anti-racism mentor with the faculty of medicine, replied and retweeted a post by a user who declared that “not masking is racist.”

A woman named Reese tweeted that Black, Indigenous, and people of colour “are the worst impacted in this pandemic, the majority of the very few people I see still wearing masks are BIPOC, Asian countries have been wearing masks during flu seasons pre-2020” and referenced the “increase of anti-Asian hate/violence.”

She added, for good measure, “White people, you do not get to say what is or isn’t racist. Stop speaking for and over BIPOC. Learn your place, sit down, shut up, and listen to us.”

Many assumed Reese’s account was a parody. (It isn’t.) She ended her rant with: “Your white saviorism is killing us. Whiteness is a problem. Oof.”