Finally, with the pandemic mask, the myth of the individual comes face to face with the reality of our profound embodied complication. The individual is not easily reconciled with our growing awareness that you’re in my lungs, and I’m in yours. Here, politics reveals itself to be fundamentally respiratory in character. Prior to the pandemic, this reality was highlighted by Black Lives Matter, which turned Eric Garner’s dying words, “I can’t breathe,” into a powerful rallying cry. Today, these same words unite the cities that exploded following the murder of George Floyd. By drawing attention to the bond between politics and the respiratory, the pandemic mask also reveals our corresponding fragility. 

AK Thompson