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  06/05/2020

  A Tale of Two Pandemics

  Declaring that being "pro-Black is not anti-White" while memorializing the names of African-Americans who have fallen victim to police brutality and racism, this homemade protest poster in a west Wichita, Kansas, neighborhood reflects the civil unrest roiling the country amidst the omnipresent COVID-19 pandemic. On June 2, just three days before this image was taken, a BLM protest organized less than a mile from this neighborhood as part of a wave of demonstrations involving thousands of citizens that rolled across Wichita. Many demonstrators wore masks as a precaution against the COVID-19 virus, but many more did not, despite Kansas's slow but steady increase in COVID cases. Large gatherings, such as the racial justice protests that have spread across the USA and the world, have unnerved public health officials, who fear that a lack of social distancing and proper protective measures will only exacerbate an already insidious disease's ruthless transmission.