This Is Us

Why Wearing Masks Makes Some of My Customers So Uncomfortable

Thoughts on White privilege from a retailer

Jessica Peterson White
Human Parts
Published in
4 min readJun 25, 2020

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A photo of the author wearing a face mask.
Photo courtesy of the author.

We opened the bookstore to the public a week ago last Thursday. We’re asking a few things of customers, including that they wear masks. It feels like a lot to ask my employees to expose themselves to aerosol droplets from people who come to our town from all over, especially when they’re also summoning grace and patience to handle a somewhat grouchy and unusually demanding public. (We are all a little grouchy, aren’t we?)

I have had one person actually yell at me (“Oh, it’s FINE, I’m LEAVING YOUR STORE ANYWAY!”) and a surprising number of others just walk right past our sign and into our store without masks. When this happens, I put on my friendliest smile and say in my brightest, least threatening voice, “Hi! Welcome! Thanks for coming in today! We are asking everyone in the store to wear masks. Do you need one? We have some, and we’re happy to share.”

I am getting really good at smizing. Thank you very much, Tyra.

Some folks respond to this cheerfully, gratefully grabbing a mask from my little box of disposables. But most are prickly and don’t smile back at me and may even roll their eyes at their companions and sigh and say, “Do you want to stay?”…

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Jessica Peterson White
Human Parts

Bookseller, city councilor, mother. Using this space to break s*** down.