First thing that popped into my head when I read about Pence being ticked off that Senator Harris wanted a barrier.

A lot of white hygiene culture in this country is simply the idea that to be white is to be clean. I don't mean an emphasis on cleanliness, but an assumption of it https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/1241904631023714305

The way that Team Trump has "handled" the virus on a personal level, the way they think that precautions are something you can get away with taking "when it makes sense" (i.e., after you need them)... it makes perfect sense if your standpoint is you're clean until 100% proven not

That's how you get people who think they don't need a mask until they have symptoms or a test, how you get people who can have a test and then go to a fundraiser with their friends, coworkers, and VIPs while waiting for the result because they "don't anticipate a positive".

If your culture identifies *other people* as dirty, *other people* as the source of disease, codes the very skin you live in as a symbol of cleanliness... it's easy to let things slide. Like hand-washing, sanitation, etc. Easy to assume you're not spreading germs.